Dear Curiosity Journal,

Sometimes wearing the Executive Director hat means that I have to buckle down and commit an entire day to office work. The administrative side of life doesn’t sparkle like the outside world, but accounting, communication, and grant reporting are necessary tasks which underpin our work. It takes discipline to avoid distractions on the farm. It would be so simple to slip out the front door into the sunny day to play in the flower garden or watch the lambs frolic. However, an uneasy energy creeps in if I procrastinate too long. I need to dedicate the next few days to completing our final grant report for the Wisconsin Arts Board Creative Communities grant we received for the 2023 Dia de Muertos Celebration. This means tracking down information, writing narratives, submitting budget numbers, and trying to quantify the experience of an event by metrics which don’t quite capture the heart of the matter, but I do my best to provide everything requested of us. I take “brain breaks” after clearing arbitrary hurdles I create for myself. I tell myself, after I finish the next two questions, I can reward myself with a ten minute break in the pasture. The flock looks so peaceful, chewing their cud in the shade, snuggling with their babies. By some curious neurological quirk, this scene resets my mind and restores my motivation to send myself over the next hurdle. What a lark, what a plunge. 

~Joy