How’s It Going?

When we were children, we used to think that when we grew up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability ..,To be alive is to be vulnerable.
— Madeline L’Engle

Today we finish up Chapter Five with the final check-in. First, how many days a week would you say you are doing your morning pages? Any chance you are starting to like them? Have you gotten as addicted as me – I find if I skip them, I am inexplicably crabby about every little thing.

Julia asks, “Have you discovered the page-and-a-half truth point yet? Many of us find that pay dirt in our writing occurs after a page and a half of vamping.” Once you let the air out of whatever dramas and stories you are experiencing, there is room for dialogue, as opposed to monologue, in the morning pages. Is this happening to you?

Which leads to some interesting shifts in how the pages might be working. In fact, I would guess that by now, and I’m seeing affirmation in some of your posts, at this point of our journey, epiphanies are starting to pop up for us as plentifully as juicy, ripe berries in the Summer fields.

These may include the simple but profound realization of what it is to believe yourself an artist, to recognize how at home in your skin that feels. Discoveries of how little power old habits and ghosts actually have, once we choose to take it away from them. What else?

Did you have your artist dates each week? What kinds of things have you been doing? I have spent time drawing, following the fun and easy guidance of a resource I’ve mentioned before, “The Creative License,” by Danny Gregory. (Thank heavens for our good library here; and their very tolerant attitude about renewals, as long as no one has reserved it after me!)

I also have been attending a monthly women’s group called The Gathering, which offers all sorts of creative opportunities. Last week, about ten of us huddled over a large, stretched canvas of white silk and painted amazing designs and magical sigils all over it. Painting on silk is very much like “wet in wet” watercolor painting. It was so much fun! It is incredibly inspiring to just spend time in a “real” artist’s studio, stocked to the ceilings with supplies, works-in-progress, and creative doo-dads.

What artist dates are you enjoying? Remember, these really are like dating, with your lover being your daemon, or your Muse, or your own tender inner artist. The artist dates are non-negotiable, because, as you know by now, your inner artist/creativity ally has some understandable, but serious abandonment and trust issues.

What kinds of internal conversations are you having on these outings? Have you heard any guidance on your dates yet? Sometimes this will come at the most casual moments, when we least expect it. Have you tried anything really adventurous?

Finally, what kinds of synchronicities are you noticing? Truly, this work is profoundly magical, by which I mean that, for no reason that can be explained by other means, actions and responses and events are triggered around us that we know are more than coincidence. And we know they are powerfully, intimately personal. And intensely benevolent.

Have any other issues have come up at this point? Let’s discuss.