This week marks the end of our first full week writing morning pages, taking our inner artist for a date and completing one or more of the tasks laid out for us in Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. How did you do? I was out of town five days last week and now have guests staying with me, so while I would have liked to have been more engaged, I'm proud of myself for doing as much as I did!
Did you write three pages every morning?
I missed one. I'm happy to see I'm loosening up. I'm happy to be writing something (almost!) every day, even if it's crap!
Did you take yourself for an artist’s date?
With a house full of guests and feeling like I "should" be playing hostess, I gave myself permission to leave for two hours, take my laptop to a coffee shop, buy myself a fancy drink at an exorbitant price and read a series of stories written by four girls I did a writing workshop with a couple of weeks ago. Such fresh and personal perspectives!
Did you complete any of the Week One tasks?
I didn't identify any "monsters"—enemies of my creative self-worth—but I did complete a number of tasks: writing out a personal affirmation; identifying my most common “blurt;” making a list of the most powerful champions of my creative self-worth throughout my life and making a list of five alternative lives I’d like to live (and may yet—who knows?!)
Do you have anything from the week you’d like to share with the rest of us?
I’d like to share the champions of my creative self-worth: my dad, who read aloud to me and gave me books; my mom, who bought me paints and pastels and drawing paper; the grade school teacher who commented on a story: “Your writing really packs a wallop!” and the junior high teacher who wrote at the bottom of a paper: “I expect to see your writing in a magazine some day;” my friend Patti, who asked me to help her rewrite a novel and set me on the path to publication; my friend Liz, who always believed in my way with words and recommended my work to an editor friend who was looking for manuscripts; my romance editor, Lisa, and my children’s book editor, Caroline, who loved my stories and wanted more; my therapist, Pat, who marvels at my creativity in life, work and words; and the many friends and fellow writers in five different critique groups who have encouraged me to write what I love and love what I write. I believe in myself because these champions believed in me.
And one more thing: If I had five other lives to lead, I’d be a children’s book illustrator, a blues singer, a motivational speaker, a vendor for the Renaissance Fair circuit and a fashion designer. The closest I got to playing out any of those this week was leading a group at a regional children’s writers’ seminar and watching the first two episodes of the new season of Project Runway!
If you haven’t had a chance, read over the comments left by your companions on this creative journey during the last week. I apologize if you've missed out on these; I believed if you subscribed to Platform 9 3/4 by email you would receive notice when comments were left on the blog. Alas, notice is sent only when I publish a new post! Julie recommends book-marking the site, which makes it easy to check in every day, but I am also going to try to post more often—reminders that others have posted comments worthy of your attention—so you have a link to click and can more easily respond to those comments. Let’s become champions of one another!
Next week's assignment: Week 2, Recovering a Sense of Identity
Loved your entry, Barbara!
ReplyDeleteWhat a week it's been. I did the morning pages every day... did the artist date... it was just a simple walk, but done with intention. I did most of the tasks.
However, I lost my wonderful companion, my dog Buddy Blakeslee. Wow, was that rough to get my mind around. He died in his sleep. He was 13. He wasn't sick, had his dinner, went to bed and ended up in doggy heaven. I'm very sad, and miss him so much, but also I'm doing okay with it all.
The morning pages have really helped with this. My father died in April, my brother died 4 months later, and now my beloved Buddy. It's been a lot to process!!
Like I said before, I paint (almost) every single day... but I have mostly been painting a lot of small paintings since my dad's death. Grieving in my own way, I've only had the energy to do one large painting along with the many small ones since his death in April. But, this week I've started my second large painting (3 feet x 5 feet and another 3 feet x 4 feet), and I feel the energy surging even with Buddy gone! I had a great beginning of my second painting yesterday and I really feel that the reason I'm getting back to a more normal (for me) painting size is the morning pages. YEA!!! ... And, besides that, I got into another gallery last week and need some new paintings now. YEA!!!
By the way, this week I read in Newsweek, January 9 & 16, 2012 on page 33 - "31 WAYS TO GET SMARTER - FASTER" #24 was... "WRITE BY HAND. Remember what that feels like? Brain scans show that handwriting engages more sections of the brain than typing."
How's that for some awesome news about the morning pages! I'll take it!
Ginny, I'm so sorry for your losses. It sounds like it has been a year of loss for many of us. I've allowed my grief to stop my creativity instead of using my creativity to heal my grief, and this realization was the impetus for going through TAW again--and for forming a group to help hold ME accountable.
DeleteI actually thought about typing my morning pages instead of handwriting them this morning--because my hand can't seem to keep up with my brain to make the writing truly stream-of-consciousness and I thought I could keep up better typing! But I definitely want to engage as many sections of my brain as possible, so I'll keep at it with the pen!
Thank you, Barbara!! I'm moving ahead... and glad you've put this together. I didn't really think I needed to study this book again, but it has really opened me up to move beyond! I appreciate you!
DeleteGinny, I am so sorry to hear bout the sudden death of your dog Buddy. And then to read about your dad and brother ... I am impressed that you are painting in any size, small or large. Peace to you.
DeleteGinny -- You've had a LOT going on. Remember, it's really OK to cry and it can be healing.
DeleteIt's great that you've been expressing yourself by painting. I keep getting bogged down by 'other' responsibilities, but I'm working on that.
Take care.
Now for my experience this week.
(how can I comment on others and also have a separate space?)
My artist's date was a kick! I went to the Crocker Art Museum and saw Bailey's works. Bailey, a ceramicist and highly creative loved MAD comics. So you can imagine the fun stuff he did. He made a burp bowl with a head in it. I blew on the water and up came a burp! Once I figure out how to insert a photo captured by my cell phone, I may try to include it.
MOnsters: all too many including one of my husbands -- the last one -- who complained if I ended a spoken sentence with a preposition. Hard to keep my head up as a City Planning Director those days. He maintained glassware in a bio lab. A genius and a heavy drinker. That relationship didn't last too long.
Recently, I've had some great champions: my oil painting teacher, now friend and fellow plein air painter, and my friends here at Sun City Roseville in the Fine Arts and Creative Arts (clay shaping and glazing) clubs.
Champions? No teacher encouraged me. Well, maybe my 9th drama teacher did and my jr. hi. math teacher. On the other hand, my father even had to read my Christmas thank-you's before I sent them. This started a year or two after I had been writing them. My mother was fun, had enjoyed a year or so of art education at Fresno State before the crash, but I only saw her do one painting as a kid.
Morning pages: I've done them every day, but a couple of days, they waited until 10 AM. This morning, I woke up and wrote about some creative ideas for painting and writing. The other days included sad or challenging stuff. By the end of the week one of my worries about an organizational challenge had more than one solution. I've initiated one of those solutions. Obviously, the morning pages have helped, A LOT.
Thanks for the opportunity to do this and share with others.
Pam W
Pam W
Pam, you can post twice--respond to a particular comment right below the post and hit "publish," then scroll down to the bottom of the comment section to enter an entirely new post.
DeleteIt's amazing how clarifying the morning pages can be, isn't it?
A trip to an art museum sounds like a really fun artist date for me! I'll keep it in mind. No Bailey here, but I'm sure there's something in a university town I'd enjoy.
Ginny, I am so sorry about the many losses you have gone through this last year ... a parent, sibling and beloved pet. Any one of those losses can take its toll. I am so so sorry.I am glad that you are finding the morning pages therapeutic and clarifying ...
DeleteCongrats on the new gallery--that is very cool and affirming too!
I loved your post as well Barbara. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteGinny, so sorry to hear of your loss. Our family had a year like that, Father-in-law, niece and grandmother. Time doesn't necessarily heal all wounds, but it does make them less painful. I'm glad the morning pages are helping you.
I've heard that same theory about the brain/hand relation and I have to agree that it really does work!
My thoughts on my week...
DeleteI am happy to say that I DID write every morning. On two of the days, I only got a couple pages done before life interrupted. But for the other five, I’m very pleased to say I wrote three pages every day. Interestingly enough, that "junky journaling" helped me move forward in my creative writing. I am in awestruck wonder as to the mechanics of how all this works, but so far it’s working for me.
Although I stood my artist up for our date this week, I did manage to “borrow” some stickers from my daughter to reward myself with.
I worked on several of the weekly tasks, the most beneficial being my making the time to identify the monsters in my monster hall of shame, (I don’t want them to be famous). This helped me discover creatures that were hidden inside, from events long ago, telling me what I could not do or become. I suppose I often heard them telling me to “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” but this week I decided to expose them as the powerless little ogres they are, so I could free myself to be the Artist I am. This led me to writing out several personal affirmations, speaking them over myself and setting a goal to post them where I write.
My share for the week is the transforming power of the morning pages. They have become a powerful tool in helping me develop into the Artist I want to be. The morning pages are a place where I can dump all of life's burdens. It’s almost as if just seeing it in print makes me feel lighter, freer to go do something fun vs. carrying around all that dead weight. When I first started the morning pages they felt like just one more thing I needed to do, as if my to do list wasn’t big enough already. My first pages were long to do lists. However, as the week progressed, my writing turned towards dreams, hopes, and desires. After a few days, I looked forward to the pages. If I didn’t have time in the morning, I took my journal with me to appointments and wrote there. Often my morning pages became all day pages. I truly believe that this simple task of decluttering my head has allowed me to find the Artist buried underneath all that stuff we call life.
As for what I would be in my five other lives; I would be a singer, musician, dancer, painter, sculptor or anything that would allow me to create something beautiful to share with the world. I’ve never allowed myself to think of creating beauty, it was always something more practical, like a paying job. Letting myself just imagine revealed who I really am inside. I am an Artist.
Jen, I'm glad the morning pages are moving you forward in your creative work! "Another thing on the to-do list" transformed into "a powerful tool"--awesome! I am so happy to read your last affirmative statement: "I am an Artist." Yes!
DeleteThank you Jenn for sharing part of your journey ... I know I'm not alone...
DeleteHello everyone! Thanks, Barbara for leading us with such a fun and sincere entry!
ReplyDeleteGinny, so sorry to hear of your losses. It's wonderful to hear that art is helping you to heal and also glad to hear that the morning pages are helping as well, with their own special brand of magic.
Morning Pages:
I had a pretty decent week. Although I've been doing morning pages for quite some time now, I approached them with more fervor this week and I do believe it's paid off with some sorely needed insights, along with some unexpected tears and emotion.
Artist's Date:
I also took myself out to buy a special notebook and fancy pen for my TAW stuff. Then topped it off with a nice cappuccino and some reading at a cafe. Artist's Dates rule! It's a mystery why they have often been the hardest thing to pull off. Or maybe not such a mystery, after reading what Julia has to say about fear of self-intimacy. I used to take myself out for dinner and a movie, back in the day. I guess I liked my own company. I want to get back to that.
Tasks:
I did identify 3 monsters. As hard as it is to "go there" it felt very powerful to identify and take some of the wind out of the self-doubt and the probable origins of "the censor". In fact, I'm planning to sketch out a cartoon censor this evening. My sword (pencil) is drawn! The battle begins, you pesky varmint!
As for the lives I'd like to lead:
1. A children's book author/illustrator
2. A chef
3. A wildlife photographer
4. An movie actor
5. An art teacher for older elementary school kids
Oh, and owner of a coffee-shop/bookstore in some hip little village-y town, like "Ellen".
So I whipped up a delicious concoction for dinner using leftovers, took a photo of my cat sunning herself and "acted" silly.
As for champions, Barbara, my dad was also one of my champions. I like to remember fondly, way back when I was a kid, how he would bring me reams of paper from work and bestow upon me his old pencils, oil paints, art books and other assorted art supplies. He was the first to believe in me.
Alright, on to the Second Week! Let's do this!
Cheers, Linda
I think the reason Artist's Dates are so difficult for so many of us is because we (women in particular) are so used to looking around us to see what needs there are to be filled, concentrating on others' and ignoring our own. We're taught that paying attention to our own needs and taking steps to fill them is selfish. But sometimes we ALL need to be self-centered. In fact, making sure I'm meeting my own needs frees me from the expectation of someone else meeting them for me and "fills the well" so I actually have more to give. It's a lesson I'm still learning. Newly single and living in a new place, I'm really excited about the artist's dates. I want to use them to explore!
ReplyDeleteLove that you acted out your coffee-shop life by whipping up a delicious concoction, Linda! Yes, let's do this!
Thank you Barb for gathering us together and starting us off with such a good post. It gave me a place to start.
ReplyDeleteI, too, completed my morning pages. I often "think" my morning pages over coffee but this time it was good to write those thoughts down.
I did not know that about handwriting as opposed to using a keyboard. Interesting. I usually start writing my picture books or even my middle grade novel by hand and rewrite them by hand as well.
As I wrote my morning pages I was reminded of a couple of situations where I felt less than positive about my creative ability. But, during the week, I was able to balance them out with reminders of my Champions of my creative self worth. So in doing the first pages this week, I was able to find the negative in the back of my mind and replace it with some positive.
My artist date was going to Office Max with their 2o% sale bag and purchasing tape, glue sticks, ink cartridges, a small calendar for my bag and pens! I finally found my favs...Uniball 207 med point gel. Yea!
Ginny,I'm sorry for your loss but isn't it wonderful to have a creative way, like painting, to help you get through the hard stuff. I agree with Jen, about the healing. I've been there also.
PS Which profile are we supposed to choose? I haven't a clue.
If you have a google or yahoo email account (easy to create for free even if you never use it for anything else), you can use that. Or you can continue to post as "anonymous," but give us a clue who you are in your post, even if it's just a nickname, so we can address you!
DeleteYour artist date sounds fun--I LOVE office supply stores!
I found myself this morning putting off the daily pages because I have this big, black, longhaired cat, Montana, that wants to cuddle as I'm sitting drinking my coffee, reading, etc. He's so determined to be my sole focus that he accomplishes just that! It's a morning ritual that he doesn't repeat the rest of the day, so I accommodate him. I love him!
ReplyDeleteThe morning pages came fairly easily to me this week. I took myself on my Artist's date yesterday by turning on my piano, putting on the earphones (it was 6:00 a.m.) and playing for an hour. I am constrained right now, as I'm taking care of my laid-up husband and working many more hours at the KOA to try to partially make up for his loss of income. I love reading everyone's comments! I always feel that others can say and do things much better than I, so I tend to be more a listener than a talker (or writer), but that's one of my "blurts".
The major "monster" to my creativity was my father. As a child, whenever I would sing or whistle, etc, he would tell me to be quiet. It hurt his ears. When I practiced the piano and needed to get up for a minute, he would turn on the T.V., putting an end to my practicing. It's a wonder I kept on, but then I had a champion in my wonderful mother, Barbara Jean's sister, by the way, who gave me the tools to be a successful piano teacher for over 30 years.
Thinking about other champions, I had a teacher in high school who taught English, foreign languages, and a pilot class in composition. I loved all those classes, and probably did my very first writing in the composition class. She encouraged me greatly. I had piano teachers throughout my life, up until I was about 59, who were also great champions of my efforts. Thanks be to them! In the last few years, since I've been married to my husband, I can honestly say he is my greatest encourager. He thinks I can do things I don't think I can do, so maybe I can!
I want to do better at the piano. It calms me, and I feel I can hear my Creator when I'm making music. I think thoughts that I'm too busy to hear the rest of the day. As for writing, I want to improve my blog, which up to now has been about our travels and the sights we see in each new place. Since my husband can't do much right now our trips are curtailed. Maybe I could learn to write about something else!
Thanks, Barbara, and all of you, for inspiring me! I look forward to the next week's lessons.
Just want to clarify that my MOM is your mom's sister, not me, Ann--I'm not THAT old! :-) I'm glad she was such a champion and sorry your dad was not. And if Montana is anywhere close to as inspiring as my lovely Miguel was, you have yourself a muse.
DeleteSo sorry! I didn't mean to do that! I saw the word "mother" and my mind flipped. Please forgive? You are actually very much younger than I am, let alone my mother's age.
DeleteQuick check in before we leave town for the day ...
ReplyDeleteMorning pages: With a late start getting my book, I had five days left and did morning pages on three of those days. The three days I did them, I had a great sense of accomplishment to start my day, and it made a difference. The days I did not do them, I missed that feeling.
Artist date: It only lasted 20 minutes, but I did go explore an art store. Sadly, that was not enough. It's a challenge to find and take time alone without guilt. This is a huge area of weakness for me which I hope I can address during the coming weeks.
Tasks: I did several of them. Surprisingly, I could not pull up too many creativity enemies, except for myself. And I was pleased to have a lot of creative champions come to mind -- mostly teachers.
Realization for the week, which I already knew from doing Morning Pages in the past: Morning Pages are a key to productivity, happiness, focus and much more for me.
Sending my best to all in the group, with eagerness to hear more stories of the week!
Good for you for checking in before you left town, Stephanie! I'm glad you recognize a qualitative difference in your days when you do your morning pages.
DeleteLike you, I find myself to be my biggest creative energy. It's difficult for me to make my own priorities as important as those of the people around me. It may be something I will always struggle with--but at least I'm aware.
I have (finally) finished reading Week 1 and feel a little more in the loop. However, I must say that, again, I felt out of my realm reading about being an artist because I truly am not. So is this course still for me, Barbie?
ReplyDeleteThat said, as I lightly went through my time travel, I cannot think of any real blurts or particular monsters. My negatives were more of a lack of inclusion leaving me with the very distinct feeling of not being good enough--not singing well enough to be in college choir, not playing guitar well enough to be on the church worship team, etc. I'm not really sure how to quantify those. Perhaps they are true...
I had an unexpected emotional jolt as I read task #7 that I am certain you will identify with, Barb. One of my biggest champions, if not my biggest, was my dad. Even when I was a freshman in college and knew only a few guitar chords, my dad loved to listen to me play. As I read task #7, I was overcome with sorrow that I could not write a thank you to him because he passed away in 1997. It surprised me to get so emotional after all these years. Thanks for letting me share that.
So I guess we are on to Week 2 now?
Jan, this course is for anyone who wants to live his or her life more creatively. I see you as such a creative person even though you don't see yourself that way! I think it takes a great deal of creativity to home school. I think the fact that you ever had an interest in music means there is an artist buried somewhere inside that for whatever reason you have blocked from expression. So yes--I think this is the perfect course for you!
DeleteAnd as far as thanking your father? I'd write him a note anyway. Offer it up as a prayer. I think he'll know.
Do you know how lucky we are to have had dads who were our champions?
And yes--on to Week Two! Try to read it through at the beginning of the week and then go back to the tasks throughout the week. We'll have space to reflect next Saturday.
DeleteThank you Barbara Jean for inspiring us all to join you in this journey and be champions of one another. I did 'work' the Renaissance Fair one summer long ago and am a fan of Project Runway all stars as well.
DeleteMy list of wannabes includes gypsy and clown
and then I remembered I have been a part time clown,some of my happiest moments, and in the remembering found clarity of a writer block. Whew! Don't even want to jinx it by saying any more. The morning 3 exercise is
a great tool. It was harder for me to write the positive affirmations than identify monsters. I had my first session with a shaman homeopath this week. She left me on an infrared and crushed jade pad combined with acupuncture and trippy music for half an hour. See where desperation finds one?
Definitely interesting.Wishing us all a lighter load this week.
Wow--the shaman homeopath sounds fascinating! I love that remembering your joyful experience as a clown brought clarity. :-) Here's to remembering happy moments!
DeleteHello All,
DeleteOK - a day or so late, but that just might be my M.O.
First off, so enjoyed reading all your posts. I came away with riches to think about. Thank you!
Ginny - I am so sorry about the loss of your sweet Dog .... there is such an emptiness left when those warm looks of love and soft padding paws are not there anymore. Please take good care of yourself. And also, Ginny, I appreciated the niggle about pen vs computer. That has been a topic of discussion with many of my writer friends of late. Am liking the pen for this experience.
I started this TAW journey on Jan 2 and when I learned of this option for fellow travelers I decided to spend two weeks on that first chapter to be on the same page with you all. Think that was where I needed to linger (or perhaps I am just going to need double the time) as I had some good insights through my morning pages. One of them was about BLURTS (Ann!:). Seems I have become rather accomplished at negative blurts, so my new mantra, thanks to Julie Cameron is CONVERT THE BLURTS. When I tried to write an affirmation five times, "I am a competent and confident writer" .... you should have heard my head during the first three rounds ..."LIAR! You are not confident or you wouldn't be strugggling so." By round four, I had quieted that blurt a bit. Not silenced mind you, but quieter.
As far as the morning pages go, my goal was five of seven days per week. I have done that... although with the grandkids here this past Thurs-Sat, I missed some days, so had to play catch-up.
I have a kind of love/hate relationship with the morning pages. Thinking I should be writing something beautiful or wise or funny. But Cameron's point about using them to move from the logic brain to the creative brain was helpful. And Jenn (Scribbles), your comment about being a good place to 'dump your stuff' helped me too. And I do feel I got quite a bit of clarity through doing them even while some of them felt like a total RANT. But wasn't Ch One about SAFETY? And did the MPs up my self-love quotient? - You betcha!
Speaking of self-love.... the Artist's Date .... not great success here. I did spend some time shopping for supplies for a paper project and giving that some thought. And I did stay at a restaurant BY MYSELF after my husband left for a meeting. And what is hard about that? Oh, I could go on and on :)! So Barbara, your comment about needing to be self-centered was spot-on for me.
So far, so good, I'd say.
Snow is coming down outside and we have almost a foot of it up here so I will grab the afghan and crack open Chapter Two. Write on!
Margie
ps -- And, thanks for the Picture book version of NanoWriMo, Loni Edwards. So happy to know of that.
I love it... CONVERT THE BLURTS! Great, Margie and thanks for your kind thoughts....
DeleteI'm glad you decided to spend an extra week on Ch.1 so you could be on the same page with the rest of us, Margie. Maybe the gods knew you needed that?!
ReplyDeleteI'm loving the snow--walked in it for an hour yesterday, kicking the stuff around. Good play-date! (That's sort of how I'm thinking about my artist date now--as a play-date with myself!)
A quick check-in to say that I've been enjoying following everyone's comments!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that several people mentioned they couldn't readily come up with enemies of their creativity (other than themselves), and I think I fall, mostly, into that camp, too. One of the things I wrote in my notebook this week was, "No more, 'if onlys'" - as in "If only I had more time... if only I didn't have to..." and so on. I think “if onlys” are my version of blurts.
Someone said this week or last that it seemed to her that it was a largely a matter of B.I.C. - butt in chair - time. Yes, it seems that's one of the biggest hurtles for me, too.
Related to both of the above, I’ve been thinking how easy it is to feel a surge of energy, inspiration, and ideas when I’m doing the morning pages (which I’m not necessarily writing in the morning – so I should just call them daily pages), but it’s equally important that I have the BIC time to follow up on the ideas I talked over with myself in the daily pages. Otherwise, those flashes of inspiration fall by the wayside, losing their potential.
I did the pages every day, though some days felt more successful and focused than others. I think that’s part of the ebb and flow and I’d have to say that the balance of days felt meaningful, as if I was making important headway in both ideas and confidence.
I had tentatively blocked out Thursday afternoon as my Artist Date. I’d wanted to do some collage exercises from a book I bought a while ago. Then, in my daily pages, I remembered there were a couple of poetry talks I wanted to relisten to. I ended up doing that on Wednesday as I worked in my classroom, and enjoyed it so much! Not only did it help take the edge off working in my room when I was officially on vacation, but I took lots of notes for my WIP and at the end of it all, I suddenly realized those several hours of listening and thinking while I straightened up had become an unplanned and spontaneous Artist Date. Perhaps next week, I’ll do the collage.
On to reading Week 2!
Thanks Dianne for .... the daily pages give us the oppty to 'follow up on the ideas I talked over with myself...'
DeleteIt's like turning the lens on the binoculars to see a bit more clearly. Thanks for refining the focus even more.
I like the idea of "unplanned and spontaneous" for artist dates. My kicking around in the snow was one of those.
DeleteI am impressed and inspired by everyone’s comments and commitment to the creative process. Here is my update on last week.
ReplyDeleteMorning Pages: I did my pages four days last week. Not as good as I had hoped, but better than the week before. I’ve noticed that I try to hurry through the pages, with an eye on the clock. This morning I woke up thinking of all I needed to do and problems I need to solve. It felt good to dump them onto the page. My sense is that the morning pages will help me pay more attention to my life. I hope so. I have had a growing sense that my life is racing by, and I would like to be more intentional.
Artist’s Date: I have a knitting project that I am trying to finish up but haven’t been able to get to. Last weekend I spent an hour on it and made good progress. I wanted to visit a yarn store, but I didn’t make it. Maybe this week.
Tasks: Sorry to say I didn’t do any, mostly because I didn’t read the chapter until Saturday, and then had to read Week 2 so I could get ahead of the game this week.
I’m going to sign off now so I can do one of the tasks for this week!
I didn't read chapter 2 till yesterday and realized there were things to be doing all week in the morning pages. Next week--an earlier reading of the chapter...
DeleteI am making a habit of posting late, but I like to read everyone else's comments anyway. So much of what I would say about the morning pages, tasks, etc. have been said that I can be succinct here (hopefully).
ReplyDeleteI have not kept any kind of journal for years and years and am enjoying it. It is a much more satisfying ritual than jumping on the computer to check email and play Scrabble while getting breakfast for my kids. I still get them breakfast, but now I'm focused on getting the morning pages done. The emails and Scrabble can wait a little bit.
My first artist's date was to let myself spend a leisurely two hours at my favorite thrift store. I came away with some great bargains (shoes and clothing), but I also felt inspired by the colors and knickknacks and catchy music (all in Spanish). A win-win.
I seem to find plenty of time for myself during the week, but it's usually something mindless (computer games) that I feel I need to "steal" from time I should be spending with family or completing tasks/chores. I am looking forward to artist's dates being more mindful and purposeful, but they don't have to be practical.
Thank you to everyone for sharing AND "listening."
I'm noticing the idea of intentionality (vs. mindlessness) in several people's comments. It's so easy to waste time on mindless tasks, or to do necessary tasks mindlessly instead of paying attention to them, with the possibility of transforming them into something joyful... I have read somewhere that the fundamental task (and the greatest gift) of love is paying attention. Perhaps that's true of self-love as well...
DeleteI love the idea of going to a favorite thrift store for an artist date. It's so hard for me to think of ideas for how to spend 2 hours with intentionality. This is a great one!
DeleteMy morning pages were rudely interrupted today by family crazy makers and the pages I began at 8:30AM ended up being completed around 5PM! Despite having a less than good day, I learned something very important. I have to make my creative time sacred, non-negotiable time that cannot be ruined by anything that is not life threatening to myself and loved ones. Then there is this little voice inside me that says I am being "selfish." The other voice on my shoulder says I need to be if I want to live up to my full creative potential. Tomorrow I am determined shut out the world until I get a few solid hours of writing!
ReplyDeleteUpdate on my progress:
Morning Pages: I have been doing them daily and continue to find myself being more "effective" as a result. My to do list gets shorter and I have lots of new angles on my works in progress.
Artist's Date: Yesterday I spent several hours gardening, planting a few barren areas in my yard that I have neglected since last spring. I love painting with petals and look forward to seeing my flowers florish! The artist's date has forced me to think about creative areas I would like to pursue. Next week some nature photography!
If I wasn't writing children's books which I love to do, I would like to be the cowgirl, Annie Oakley, a tap dancer, a wildlife/nature photgrapher, a breeder of Norfolk Terriers, and a CEO of a children's literacy non-profit. I would also like to be Nora Ephron for a day.
On to re-reading Week 2. I like to read the chapters twice to get it to sink in ;-)! Love hearing everyone's stories.
Such a disconnect to hear about you gardening and look out my window on the snow and ice, June! Our artist dates were polar opposites this week. I just watched a fat robin red-breast land on a bare branch of the Japanese maple outside my window and thought, "Spring is coming!" I want to be at a place in my head where I can enjoy the present and look forward to the future with equal delight...
Delete