I don’t want to come to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well. — Diane Ackerman We are coming to the end of Chapter Nine, which has been about Recovering a Sense of Compassion for … Read more
Evergreen Surrealist Pearl FryarI walk slowly, but I never walk backward. — Abraham Lincoln I left you with a real cliff-hanger yesterday! Rather than moving gently ahead one step at a time in our artistic recovery, we have a tendency to be addicted to Big Drama, so we rush madly to the precipice of complete … Read more
Andy GoldsworthyThe two most powerful warriors are patience and time. — Leo TolstoyWhy is it so hard to take things in baby steps? Why are micromovements (which seem ridiculously obvious, once you think about them) such a revelation? I think that part of it comes from an unspoken expectation for humans to now move at … Read more
Success is bounding from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. — Winston Churchill Just because our creativity is (I believe with all my heart) guided and sourced from the Divine, this does not mean that the road is always easy, without bumps and potholes. In fact, sometimes, there will be chasms! To be … Read more
Genius is nothing but continued attention.— Claude Adrien Helvetius, French philosopher (1715-1771) Paying attention, slowing down – these are powerful healing antidotes for self-doubt, cynicism and fear. Focusing on the now gives us the necessary perspective to overcome every circumstance, and reminds us that we are interconnected to a web of creative support and love.In … Read more
Nobody can be exactly like me.Sometimes even I have trouble doing it.— Tallulah Bankhead Self-sabotage is a very real danger on the road to recovery. Julia warns, “A common form for this sabotage is showing someone our morning pages. Remember, the morning pages are private and are not intended for the scrutiny of well-meaning friends. … Read more
It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person: Always do what you are afraid to do.— Ralph Waldo Emerson With few, fortunate exceptions, many of us are discouraged early on from making serious financial or career commitments to our youthful artistic yearnings. These messages often come as dire warnings, … Read more
Reason is powerless in the expression of Love. — Rumi If I had to pick one of the most consistent themes of the human experience that I see in my Tarot practice, it would be the suffering that people undergo when, for any number of reasons, they are unable to connect to or express their … Read more
Our aspirations are our possibilities.— Samuel Johnson Julia’s book was written as a 12-week program, mirroring the 12-step recovery process of Alcoholics Anonymous and other similar programs. Well, it took me more like 4 or 5 months, not 12 weeks, when I was working through it my first time.I am not sure how long it … Read more