Although I am by no means an expert on things woo woo, sometimes I can't help but agree with the sentiment that we're all connected.
Lately, I've noticed that a lot of my writing friends and blogging colleagues have been philosophizing unusually much on the meaning of life and the reality of death.
And thus I ended up with the title of this post, because in the end — at least if you're human — there seems to only be one possible final outcome.
I don't say that because I am feeling morbid or depressed, merely as an observation of the fact that these journey we take do have a predictable end.
I took some time to walk on the beach today in part because I wasn't feeling terribly inspired in other ways, and in part because I just needed to clear my head.
"Working too much" isn't something that's just limited to those who are slaving away in a law office or maybe working for Microsoft 60-70 hours a week. It also applies to the self-employed who sometimes find themselves having to put in exceptionally long hours simply to keep what they're doing afloat.
The Reinvention, Part 452...
In some ways, I'm in the process of "reinventing myself" for the umpteenth time. It's essentially a matter of facing up to the reality that some of the things I've been doing (and enjoyed doing for a long time) have become largely ineffectual, at least in terms of helping us being able to pay our bills.
Maybe it's not exactly the fault of the work, itself, so much as the fault of a society in which the cost of living is still rising significantly faster than people's income... or, more specifically, our income.
Meanwhile, the Cryptosphere remains largely in the toilet and whereas I'd like to think dream otherwise, it can't be counted on to provide much of anything, anymore.
This reinvention isn't going to be anything spectacular or dramatic. It's likely just going to be a fairly subtle change of direction away from trying to sell things that have already been made towards selling things that haven't yet been made and are being sold as "parts" and will be purchased by people who hope they can put those "parts" together and somehow make more money themselves.
My observations from a life of self-employment has long been that those who thrive during economic slow times tend to be the ones who provide services to those who are desperately trying to stay afloat and trying to grow their businesses.
25 years ago one of the most successful things you could be involved in was the print and advertising business because everybody was trying to print flyers, newsletters and sales letters and place advertising to prop up their struggling ventures.
I have one small business that is slowly dying because its customer base is basically "aging out," (that would be stamp collecting and selling old stamps to collectors) and I have another that provides things that are considered totally non-essential in a slow economy where people are more worried about being able to buy food (that would be my artwork).
It's not that I'm giving them up, it's just a matter of not being able to rely on them anymore.
So what I instead need to do is find a way to sell art supplies and creative supplies to people who are hoping to create something that they are going to turn around and try to sell at their local arts and crafts fairs. As I said, slow times are usually a good time for supplies.
As I have sporadically written about in the past, one of the things I have long been part of is offering "found objects" to artists, crafts people and jewelry makers all around the world. So I'm going to get a bit more back into that area. I don't have any beach glass anymore because it's all been picked up, but I do have access to a fairly substantial supply of nice driftwood and I do have the ability to gather lots of small stones and pebbles, classify them and sort them by color, shape and size and sell them to hobbyists and crafts people.
It's a minor change of direction and it still appeals to my sensibilities because I've always enjoyed "finding things" and putting them in the hands of people who actually need them and use them!
It's early days yet but I did get myself a bit of a start today and now the project is off and rolling. Updates as I chart my way through these particular waters!
Thanks for reading and have a great remainder of your week!
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Created at 2023-07-25 23:58 PDT
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