Burning Up versus Burning Out

And the list goes on ...

• a few more cards
• finish off a project for my daycare family
• can come up with some kind of video or slideshow?
• what idea can I dream up for friends?
• should I try to fill a stocking for my kids?! Everyone else is doing it!
• I should come up with a Christmas this ...
• ... or a Christmas that ...

I like the creative flow of thoughts that is streaming through my brain right now but I'm ready wind down and just coast.

What will I do with my thoughts after this season is behind me? I have jumped from the frying pan (the family book project) into the fire (the family reunion) and from there I seem to have hopped into the embers of said fire (Christmas). 

What is left? Ashes?!

I don't want the fire to burn out. I want to keep blowing air into the dying embers and keep some part of this creative spirit alive.

I'm tired of the pressure I feel at Christmas. I just want to give and do and 'be' for the sake of giving and doing and being. 

I want to flip this calendar page into a bright and shiny new month without commitment or plans or a to-do-list which never ends.

I may wander for a spell. I may lose myself in a great sea of nothingness for just a little while. I may accomplish great things. Then again, I may accomplish nothing at all. 

I know I need a little bit of pressure to keep me moving in a forward direction. I have done what I set out to do this year. I pressured myself into doing what I had put off for so long. What is next?

There is a spark of an idea here. A glimmer over there. Some part of this feeling inside of me has to stay alive. 

It is a fine line between burning up by doing too much verses burning out by doing nothing at all. I just want to find that sweet spot right in the middle.

I want to keep those home fires within myself burning.