What is a Life?

What do I want out of Life?  What kind of Life do I want to live?

Of course there's always the part where we wonder and worry about money. Money is the thing that makes the world go round. It helps to form this thing we call "A Life".  This is where things begin to get tricky, when we know what kind of Life we want to live but just don't know how to go about it.

I recently lost a job, due to a company closure. A job that provided stability for my family and for me. I loved what I did and not very many people can say that.  So many people have said "It's not your fault" "Something will work out" and they're right, something will work out, but it's all about time.

All I want is a simple life.

I want a life where I am able to provide for the needs of my family, a life where I have the time to spend with my wife, go to my children's activities and serve in my church. I don't want to be a corporate drone who works endless hours to make a quick buck. I don't want the high-pressure, high-stress way of doing business. I do need money to survive but not at the expense of family, sanity and quality of Life. That's just too big of a cost & Life's too short.

I crave stability, order and structure. A simple life.  How do I get this life I crave so much? I have no idea!

I need a job, that's a given. I want one I enjoy doing, that complements my skillset. A job I can be proud of and still cover all our expenses yet let me live the life I want to live. This is not an easy task. Everything in our world keeps getting more and more expensive. It never seems to be enough. All I want to do is go back to the days when life was sweet, simple and beautiful. A world where we learned to do a certain skill and do it well; not one where we're required to continually know how to do everything for nothing. This is what I seem to find in my field. Employment where I'm supposed to be super-human. Know everything, do everything and oh by the way get paid hardly anything. They want to take all my time, energy, effort and leave me with nothing. No sense of pride, Nothing!  I feel like I'm being sucked dry and I don't have a choice because I need to provide for my family. So what do I do?

So again I say I want a simple Life. I don't want to live in this corporate droned world I seem to find myself in, but I don't know how to escape or change it. I am a Graphic Designer. I love to create something from nothing. I can sit for hours doodling in Photoshop or Illustrator coming up with a solution to a visual problem. I am an artist. I love beautiful creations. There just doesn't seem to be a place for an Artist among the simple country folk. I'm not a farmer or rancher, sometimes I like to think of myself as a Cowboy. This is where I long to be... but I am chained to the fast paced city lifestyle for possible job opportunities.

How do I get the best of both worlds?