If you’ve ever slumped back in your chair and thought gosh, I’d really love to chat with my accountant about embracing the creative life… My friend, you’ve come to the right place!
No? Never? Then I welcome you to a new experience where the humour is ironic and the business of play is quite serious. 🙂
Before we get going here, don’t worry – this is not an accounting blog, just a blog maintained by an accountant.
(…Still worried? Fair enough.)
I’ve always wondered what it would be like to write a blog since it aligns well with my love of writing and of giving unsolicited advice. So in the spirit of balancing the books and the creative life, it’s time to explore a new venture!
Now, you may be thinking, oh no, an accountant with a creativity blog, I bet she tries to get cute with whimsical accounting analogies…
Absolutely correct. Let’s chat debits and credits.
Debit This, Create That
“Debit this, credit that” is a common accounting term often uttered from one accountant to another, usually while hunched over a computer screen, counting beans. It refers to a journal entry, but instead of the kind that goes, “today I went to my accountant’s office. I don’t know what happened, and my pocketbook is lighter,” it looks something like: “Dr Accounting Expense $x,xxx/Cr Cash $(x,xxx)”. (Either way, thank you for paying your friendly neighbourhood accountant!)
You see, one doesn’t simply count the beans, they tell the wonderful story of the beans’ journey over the last period. Where they’ve “bean” (sorry), what they’ve encountered, and how they’ve managed to contribute to a larger vision. They tell the tale of “how things have changed since we last checked in”. I think it’s a lovely parallel to blogging, which captures thoughts and ideas rather than transactions and adjustments, but tells a story just the same. The posts mark changes in values over time, and take ideas out of the abstract, arranging them into shareable information.
(As it happens, this is also the lovely analogy I tell myself while slogging through some of the more tedious parts of accounting. It keeps my inner creative happy!)
For every debit there is an equal and opposite credit (or combination thereof, but that’s not as catchy). Thus, I like to see the beans’ story as one of balance. Sometimes things get chaotic and you need a complex journal entry to capture it, but there’s always order to be found in the chaos. Finding harmony between the joys and demands that arise when one embraces work life, family life and the creative life is not an easy feat, but it’s certainly worth exploring!
What it all sums to
I’m frightened and delighted to try out such a potentially public hobby. I suppose I’ve become an unintentionally private person when it comes to creativity, but I also believe that the world could always use more art. I don’t believe in a “skill-level barrier” when it comes to sharing our creations, although many of us set one for ourselves anyways. I’m here trying to follow my own advice and share, fear be darned!
I would be thrilled if something in here resonated with someone out there, even if just the shared experience of trying to carve out time for ourselves. I hope to fill this space with encouragement, inspiration, triumphs and failures, and to add a little lightness into the otherwise serious business of living.
May our debits and credits be in balance, and may our beans always be magical!
