Ep 20: Season Finale and Checking In
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Perfectionist in Recovery
Season Finale and Checking In
Hello, everyone! It has been a minute since last checked in with you all! On the Perfectionist in Recovery podcast the last episode I shared moving through burnout seems really timely now in hindsight, because I definitely was feeling pretty burned out, so I just wanted to check in with you all today.
[00:00:27] The purpose of today's episode is just to check in, to catch up on things that have happened since I last shared with you, and chat a bit about what's been going on, as well as to wrap up this first season of the podcast.
[00:00:44] But before I do that, I want to thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for hanging around for being with me on this journey. It has been... It's just been a year, you know, and I am just so grateful for the community that has formed around this podcast, and again, the support that I received in sharing here and creating this space, so thank you so much. If you all have any feedback to share about the podcast, especially topics that you would like to hear discussed on the podcast or any other episode, topics that you want to hear, definitely share those with me. Send me a message on Instagram, go to my website at www.marcyparksart.com And submit your suggestions or your feedback through the feedback form or contact form there and let me know! As you know, as I've said before, your feedback makes this podcast more enjoyable for you to listen to. So send me all the feedback. And definitely, again, if you have any suggestions for things that you want to hear or things that you want discussed on the podcast, let me know as I make plans for season two of the podcast in twenty twenty one. I want to cater it as much as possible to topics that you all want to hear as well. So please, please, please share those.
[00:02:15] Now, if you are already loving the podcast, definitely leave a review, rate, subscribe, follow - all of those things and whatever streaming platform you are using and definitely leave a review on Apple podcasts. Reviews are the best way that you can support the podcast and its success and keeping it growing. So definitely do that and you can find links to leave reviews at the transcripts of every episode also on my website or just off the podcast link on my website at www.marcyparksart.com .
[00:02:48] All right. So let's get into it! Today, I just want to check in, catch up and wrap things up. This is the 20th episode of the podcast. I'm really excited about that. It seemed like a good number to end on for this season one. The last time I chatted with you all, as I said, I was recording an episode about burnout and I was definitely feeling it at that time.
[00:03:13] November was just crazy with, you know, election madness, not to mention pandemic and getting ready for the holidays and holidays during a pandemic. And I was also releasing a new collection of work. In November, just after the last episode, I was releasing a new body of work - it's a body of small works on paper called Messy Moments and. Man, that body of work is just so representative of this year. The Messy Moments collection is a collection of small, giftable, abstract works on paper, and the pieces are all six by six or nine by six inches. My intention was just to have small works on paper that are affordable for people and accessible, but also that really capture what I was experiencing and feeling overall with 2020, so I titled it Messy Moments because I wanted to capture that balance of absolute mess that has been 2020, but also the beauty that has come from it, if that makes sense. Messy Moments just speaks to those moments where it's really life is just messy, things aren't perfect, nothing's really going right. But good things still come from it. And it was really just inspired by one particular moment with my daughter Searsha. She's three, and three is a tough, tough age to parent and tough age to experience, I think, for her, too, just because, you know, she's three and she has, you know, her a very strong sense of identity coming through and strong urge of wants and needs, and a lot of times, I'm sure to her it seems like, I'm standing in the way of those wants and needs, so obviously conflict happens, but in this particular instance, you know, there was a tiny little meltdown.
[00:05:56] And when I say tiny, it was lots of kicking and screaming because "no" is not her favorite word to hear (understandably, because who actually likes to hear "no"). So, you know, we worked through it. I try to be really deliberate in affirming her feelings and validating whatever it is that she's wanting or saying in that moment and then trying to work through the conflict with compassion and empathy, but still firm boundaries, and even having a discussion about boundaries. So anyway, this meltdown, it was stressful, it was just not pretty in the moment, but then afterwards, we had a really good conversation around why "no" isn't a bad word.
[00:06:57] Then we had a good conversation around giving each other grace - which was more for me because it was me needing to give her grace and have more patience in that moment.
[00:07:09] So we had this not-so-tiny-meltdown that was not pretty in the moment, but then it evolved into a bigger conversation around grace, patience, compassion, forgiveness, and it ended really sweetly with a nice hug.
[00:07:22] And so there was this moment that was super messy, super sloppy, but ended in such a tender moment with understanding, validation, compassion, and grace. And of course, it doesn't always happen this way, but in that instance, it was just a really sweet moment that had a really sweet conclusion. But it didn't start out that way, right? It was it was really messy in the beginning and a lot of a lot of stumbling on my part in the beginning, navigating that that situation. And so but we couldn't have gotten to the sweetness. We couldn't have gotten to the hug at the end had it not been for just that shit show of a first half and so messy moments is a lot about that. It's a lot about like the stumbling, the mess, the the tripping over your words, the forgetting things, the spilling your coffee as you're rushing to get out the door and getting stuck in traffic or whatever. It's about the mess, but it's also about the beauty that comes from that mess - the chance to start over, the chance to to pause and give yourself some grace, the moment of forgiving yourself or forgiving another person and the tenderness that can come from that and the full embrace of your own humnanity.
[00:08:41] So, yeah. I was releasing the Messy Moments collection and, you know, just really feeling that rawness of my own humanity and the rawness of my own humanity as I was caught up in the flurry of all the behind the scenes work - the taking photos and marketing the collection, doing all of those the business side of things as well. And honestly, it was a really successful launch. I was really pleased with that. There were thirty one pieces in the collection. More than half have sold at this point, so only a few remain, which is really exciting. And again, better than I could have hoped. And yeah, I'm just really excited about that and of course want to take a moment to thank you all for being there and receiving that as well and for supporting me through that and that body of work as well. But so that's what I was I have been working on. And then after that collection, honestly, it was like full swing into the holidays. Right. Because then it was Black Friday or Thanksgiving and Black Friday and Small Business Saturday and all of those things. And so I was doing a lot of promotions on my work and prints at that time and trying to navigate how to celebrate the holiday safely with family, which was challenging. So that's just what's been going on. And I really didn't intend to take such a long pause away from the podcast in the way that I did, so I do apologize for missing the last couple of weeks, but, you know, as I've shared, there have just been so many things going on! The ball got go going really, really fast. So I did really want to come in and check in with you all and just say that I am so grateful for this time that I have had to share, and I am looking forward to sharing more with you in 2020 after a little break folloiwng the first season of the podcast. I definitely want to be more intentional with sharing topics that you all are really interested in and sharing topics of discussion that you all have suggested or said that you want to hear about or even interviews that you want to hear, so I'm really looking forward to that.
[00:11:58] I'm really looking forward to taking some time to slow down and just be with my family and really be in the holiday - whatever that looks like this year. I've got a lot of things planned for 2021 that I'm really looking forward to and looking forward to sharing with you, but more than anything, I am just looking forward to a slower, less busy, less noisy, less stressful holiday. The biggest take away I have from this year is the beauty of truly slowing down and doing less, so I fully intend on taking the rest of December and most of January to just really be slow, move slowly, not feel this need to rush out and just, you know, buy gifts for people to buy gifts from people, not feel pressured to be out anywhere or obligated to go to any holiday parties or anything like that and just to stay home and be with my family and be slow, and move slowly, and live slowly.
[00:15:19] But I do want to take another moment to say thank you all so much for being here. I really am just so grateful. Grateful for your presence, grateful for your time, grateful for your support, All of the things! Again, if you have any suggested topics for the podcast or episodes that you want to hear, conversations you want to hear, interviews, artists that you want to hear, please send me that feedback. I would love to hear it. But otherwise, that's all I have for you all today. And I hope that you all are staying safe, staying well, and that you do have a happy holiday season, that you have a healthy holiday season, that you have a sane holiday season, and that you all are staying safe. And yeah, I'm just so grateful for you all, and I will be checking back with you again soon. Until next time.
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