[Today’s post is part of a new series of short parables about the creative life, chosen from my almost forty years as a creativity coach. Please enjoy! To be in touch, you can reach me at [email protected]]
For fifteen years, Maria had squeaked by as a graphic artist. Her plan had been to make enough money as a graphic artist to allow her to pursue her love of painting, but, as it turned out, she rarely painted, spending just about all of her time and energy on paid work that took forever to complete, that stressed her out, and that paid little.
So, in her mid-thirties, she returned to the “real world” of work and, after almost two years of retraining herself and looking for a job, she landed a high-stress job working as a project manager for a company that curated corporate events.
One Sunday, she managed to make time for her friend Rose, whom she hadn’t seen in months. They met at their favorite café off their favorite Roman square, next to a bakery famous for its hard-crusted Roman rolls.
Maria caught Rose up. Rose, dismayed by the picture Maria was painting and worried for Maria’s health, exclaimed, “What is your exit strategy?”
Maria shook her head. “I can’t have an exit strategy. I have to spend at least two years at this job, so that I have something solid-looking on my résumé. Otherwise, I will be completely unemployable.”
“Well … at least … maybe you can paint on Saturdays?”
Maria shook her head. “I’m still working on Saturdays. I’m working all the time.”
“But …” Rose bit her lip. She wanted to say, “But what about time with your husband, and time with friends, and playing with your nephews and nieces, and just strolling around Rome like you used to do, and …” But she held her tongue.
“It is what it is,” Maria said.
Rose wanted to say many things. Maria read her mind and said, “It’s not a puzzle to be solved or a problem to be fixed. It is what it is.”
Rose gathered up her things. “All right, then.”
“You’re angry with me? For having to keep a job?”
“I’m …” Indeed, she was angry, or maybe frustrated. “I’m … disappointed.”
“In me?”
“No!”
“It must be in me,” Maria said, hanging her head.
“It isn’t!” Rose exclaimed. “I can’t fault you. I’m disappointed … I’m disappointed that life is like this.”
They sat on for some time, not speaking. When, in the normal course of events, it would have been time for them to order a second cappuccino, they didn’t. Finally, Maria sighed.
“I have to go home and get some work done,” she said.
“Of course,” Rose replied.
Once outside, they said their goodbyes. As each of them expected, they made no plans to meet again.
**
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Eric Maisel is an internationally-respected diplomat coach who specializes in creativity coaching, existential wellness coaching, and relationship coaching. He trains coaches and provides workshops and webinars nationally and internationally.
Dr. Maisel is the author of 50+ books, writes the “Rethinking Mental Health” blog for Psychology Today (with 3.5 million views), blogs for The Good Men Project and Fine Art America, serves as lead editor for the Ethics International Press Critical Psychology and Critical Psychiatry series, and is co-founder of Purposely, the life navigation app.
Dr. Maisel’s books include Fearless Creating, Rethinking Depression, Coaching the Artist Within, The Van Gogh Blues, The Power of Daily Practice, Redesign Your Mind, and scores of other titles. He has been published by Penguin Random House, McGraw Hill, Rodale, Harper San Francisco, Shambhala, New World Library, and Conari/Mango, among many others.
Dr. Maisel has created three certificate programs with Noble-Manhattan Coaching, a Creativity Coach Certificate and Diploma Program, an Existential Wellness Coach Certificate Program, and a Certified Relationship Coach program. With Lynda Monk of the International Association for Journal Writing, Dr. Maisel has created an Art of Journal Coaching Self-Study Plus program.
Dr. Maisel’s most recent books are Why Smart, Creative and Highly Sensitive People Hurt (2023), Affirmations for Self-Love (with Lynda Monk, 2024), Parents Who Bully (2024), and Choose Your Life Purposes (2024). Dr. Maisel lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and maintains a thriving international coaching practice.
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: iStock
