Creative Bulletin n.304

Yesterday I found out that we won’t be reimbursed about 5,000 euros in Carta del Docente vouchers, a system of vouchers that teachers in Italy can use and then get reimbursed by the state. A law was changed during the year, and they informed us with a simple email that I didn’t read carefully enough.

In an already difficult year like this one, it was a pretty hard blow to the knees. There was no one to be angry at, no number to call to scream insults into, so I just lay on the bed for half an hour and allowed myself to feel like shit.

Getting back up. I felt like complaining, “It’s an unfair screw-job!”, and justifying myself, “I’ve always requested reimbursement for the vouchers at the end of the year, how was I supposed to imagine they’d change the rules of the game???”. But after swaying on the bed for a while, I told myself: what’s the point?

I got up and made a coffee. It had already happened and there was no way to change it. I might as well think about the next steps.

Lesson learned. I had so many things going on that I only skimmed the email. It happens. That’s not even the real issue. The real problem is that I’m disorganized: I make a plan and then, too often, I let external factors, like this episode, knock me off balance. All year long I’ve been losing focus, running after one hassle and then another.

🌈 Creative takeaway: always return to the center

What I’ve described above is a very concrete example of creative life. All kinds of problems can come up: vouchers not paid, a supplier messing up a delivery, shipments disappearing into thin air, printing errors, bugs, and so on.

No one died. It’s just another major pain in the ass. There will be thousands of them. It’s part of the game we’ve chosen to play.

Can we do something about it? Let’s do it. Can’t we do anything? Let’s move on. No one really cares about our complaints and our justifications anyway.
Let’s go back to the book we’re writing, the painting we’re painting, the project we’re working on.
Let’s return to our center.

This is my intention for the new year 😉

With ❤️,
Matteo

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