This is a subject that comes up quite frequently between my Husband and I. See, there’s a reason why I always use “passionate” to describe myself. I go head first in new passions like nothing else matters. Some have been part of my life for as long as I can remember, some are more recent. But to him, you should not make a career out of your passion, which shocks me every time he tells me so.
A few months ago, we watched the episode of “Chef – Pastry” about Christina Tosi. I love and admire her. Ever since I discovered her creations for Momofuku’s Milk Bar. She is passionate, she has that fire that almost died but that she did not let. It brought so many thoughts
Making art
When I was a kid, I used to make jars of colored salt and gift them to my family. I would sit down for hours, colored chalks, salt and empty yoghurt glass jars in hand, a newspaper covering the table as protection. I used to paint outside of my grandparents’ house as my Grandma and Mom were gardening. I was always doing something with my hands, maybe because I grew up as an only child and needed to busy myself. I wrote stories. My imagination had no limits.
Making art is not just about painting something, because you know as well as I do that creativity as various faces.
Also, once I started recording my process to share on Youtube, I discovered another passion: video editing. You guys: I have SO.MUCH.FUN editing my videos. Finding new ways to convey my stories, my creativity is always good for my Soul… so why not make it my job?
Reading
I don’t know at what age I was able to read by myself, but books have been in my life for as long as I can remember. The feel of paper and being transported into other universes and people’s lives is something I crave. Books are my escape route. Reading is what I do when I want to cut myself out of my own life.
One of my go-to Soul Care ritual is actually pretty simple: run a hot bath with Epsom salt.
I recently decided to go back to the beginning and quietly opened both an Instagram account (Bibliobibuli) and a book blog. It’s not filled yet, but it is a work in progress.
I would love to receive book for reviews. Putting it out there 😉
Cooking
Food has always been a big part of my daily life. I have all these pictures of family events focused around meals. This is not a cliché when we say that Frenchies are being social around food. We can spend hours at the table, not even necessarily eating but catching up, joking and being around loved ones.
Cooking brings back memories of me, my Mom, my Grandma, my aunts and even some of my uncles, together in the kitchen. Me on a stool, in charge of mixing whatever it was. These are found memories of my days as a kid.
At 18, after my career plan A didn’t work out, I started cooking school.
In France, right after our 1st daughter was born, I created the blog ABC-Cooking and even though I left right when I could become something out of it, it was quite big and is a project I am still proud of 14 years later. I am re-opening an updated version, called Nova’s Kitchen (Nova=Me), simply. For now, I write in French but I might make it bilingual.
Fitness
Living fibromyalgia (officially since 2011) is teaching me a lot about myself, and about my body.
See, I hated PE at school. I was quite bad at it so I was relieved to be exempted of it for my last two years of high school.
After two years of depression when I was diagnosed, I reached a point of no-return: I either continued drifting away, or had to make a change. Change it was. I started walking in our neighborhood for 15 to 40mn everyday. It was so hard at the beginning because I was heavy, and in a lot of pain. But fibromyalgia is like a vicious circle: the less you move, the more it hurts, the less you want to move…
Not too long after we moved to Québec, we signed up for Orange Theory Fitness. It is an hour-long fitness class that is both HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and cardio. I knew nothing about this but it felt right. We were going 3+ times a week and I loved it. Pushing what I thought were my body’s limits became an obsession. Seeing results was a bonus.
How do I define my true calling, then ?
After reading what I just wrote, I realize that a lot of these passions were there when I was a kid, but abandoned at some point in my life.
Them coming back so strongly, when I least expected them, is what proves to me that I can’t escape them. I just can’t… So what should I do with all that?
I realized when I started trying to build a career out of my artwork, that it demands a lot of self-discipline, to be outgoing. It became too much pressure (put there only by myself). My creativity got blocked as a result. And that sucked! Sending my pieces around the world make me so happy, it is not even just about making money out of it.
I don’t have an answer to this question so I am open to your thoughts and input.
