Hunh...

So I began the readings in The Artist's Way [herein known as TAW]. All of the intro info and the first chapter. Yes, I'm starting my week a day later than I had planned this week, but that's okay. One day is not going to hurt me in the grand scheme of things.



The readings were actually interesting. Looking at the information for the Morning Pages made me realize that I really just wasn't letting myself get any of this back when I first went through this book in college. And to be completely honest, by the time I was taking that particular class, I was already burned out on school, so I really wasn't giving it my all. No, that's not exactly right. I only burned out on school because I wasn't budgeting my time correctly for school, work, sleep, and me time. And "me time" consisted of being on the computer, chatting with my friends and getting myself into relationships that I probably never should have gotten into in the first place. I was burning out on me and let the education suffer for it. I don't know that I'll ever forgive myself for that, or find a way to make up for it and all of the lost time that I squandered.

This time around, I'm going to do some serious work on this. My creativity has always been something by which I've tried to define myself. And if that is blocked in any way, that's not really defining myself properly, is it?

There were some quotes that Julia Cameron made within the pages that I read tonight that really resonated with me. I'm going to list them here, and quite possibly use them as the basis of future posts here. We'll see how that goes. Each quote will have the page number I found it on.

• When the word God is used in these pages, you may substitute the thought good orderly direction or flow. [pg 12]
  
• Nothing dies harder than a bad idea. [pg 14]
  
• The heart of creativity is an experience of the mystical union; the heart of the mystical union is an experience of creativity. [pg 17]
  
• Leap, and the net will appear. [pg 18]
  
• Judging your early artistic efforts is artist abuse. [pg 45]
  
• All too often, it is audacity and not talent that moves an artist to center stage. As blocked creatives, we tend to regard these bogus spotlight grabbers with animosity. [pg 48]

I am still debating on exactly which of the exercises and tasks I'll be posting here, in addition to my reactions to some of the chapters and my work through this process. This is still in its infancy, but unlike that baby boy that was taken away 25 years ago Monday, I want to see this through to completion, adulthood.


And now, as Julia says, it's time to jump, so that net can appear...