AquariJenn
07-10-2002, 12:41 PM
This is our final week. I know it has been nearly a month since the last post, but it feels just like it was yesterday! I hope that you have been able to make some changes in your lives, even if those changes are nothing more than changes in your awareness of yourself as a woman and as an artist. This week's chapter is Chapter Twelve: Recovering a Sense of Faith in The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0874776945/ref=nosim/storknet00).
Goals for the Final Week:
* Read Chapter Twelve: Recovering a Sense of Faith
* Write Morning Pages each day.
* Do five tasks.
* Go on your Artist Date!! (You deserve it!)
* Check in here to let us know how you're doing! http://www.storknet.com/boards/wink.gif
<u>Trusting</u>
Throughout this book, Cameron has been teaching us to use ourselves as our own guide. By writing our Morning Pages, we learn to listen to that inner voice that may have been silent for a very long time. We have slowly learned that by trusting that voice and staying true to our dreams, we can be happy and creative and enjoy a life of great rewards. At the heart of this is our ability to trust ourselves and have faith that The Great Creator will support us as we follow our dreams.
Each of us has an inner dream that we can unfold if we will just have the courage to admit what it is. And the faith to trust our own admission....It is the inner commitment to be true to ourselves and follow our dreams that triggers the support of the universe.
<u>Mystery</u>
As a recoverying creative person, we need to be patient and allow our ideas to germinate. We should not expect miracles, but rather mysteries. Who knows exactly how ideas come about, but they do. The clues to our next grand idea appear like clues in our morning pages, in our sketch pads, in our dreams. We must be patient and gather these clues, allow the clues to be revealed to us, rather than forcing them to appear. We must have faith that the universe will give us all that we need to succeed.
The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.
Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise. All too often, when we say we want to be creative, we mean that we want to be able to be productive. Now, to be creative is to be productive -- but by cooperating with the creative process, not forcing it.
<u>The Imagination at Play</u>
Play is essential for our well-being as both artists and as human beings. I'm currently reading a book by Dorothy Einon called Play with a Purpose: Learning games for children six weeks to ten years. In this book she writes:
Adults play when they have nothing better to do....adult play is a means of filling in time between mainstream activities - like earning a living and rearing children. By contrast, practically everything a child does, when he has not been asked to do something else, is play. It can be joyful, it can be serious, it can be solitary, it can be social. It is frequently repetitive. And it is almost always creative.
Our hobbies provide us with a means to "play" and rejuvenate our souls. We play as we piece together a new quilt or brush watercolors on a canvas. Putting together a model or potting plants is play, too. Turn back to the things you loved to do or always wanted to do watch your spirit soar!
Spiritual benefits accompany the practice of a hobby. There is a release into humility that comes from doing something by rote. As we serve our hobby, we are freed from our ego's demands and allowed the experience of merging with a greater source. This conscious contact frequently affords us the perspectives needed to solve vexing personal or creative conundrums.
<u>Escape Velocity</u>
Just as we are about to move on to the next great thing in our lives, we are suddenly confronted by the one thing or one person who can (and will) keep us from moving forward. This is what Cameron calls "The Test". If we have been paying attention all these long weeks, if we have maintained our committment to the morning pages and artist dates, then we have the ability to pass the test. We can look into the eye of the over-demanding boss, the crazy-making friend/lover, the self-doubts and tell them "no". We can find new jobs. We can find time for our art. We have reached the "escape velocity" necessary for us to break free of our old lives and begin flying toward the new. "Escape velocity requires the sword of steely intention and the shield of self-determination." Even if you haven't been able to keep up, you still have these tools and more. They are always at your disposal. It is never to late to begin again. Baby steps, baby steps, and fly!
Topics for Discussion:
* Have you been doing your morning pages? If not, what has kept you from them?
* What are your creative goals for the rest of this year? this month? this week? today?
* Have you experienced any synchronicity? Have any opportunities presented themselve to you unexpectedly?
* How have you grown since beginning this course?
* What was your best artist date?
Edited to fix link.
Goals for the Final Week:
* Read Chapter Twelve: Recovering a Sense of Faith
* Write Morning Pages each day.
* Do five tasks.
* Go on your Artist Date!! (You deserve it!)
* Check in here to let us know how you're doing! http://www.storknet.com/boards/wink.gif
<u>Trusting</u>
Throughout this book, Cameron has been teaching us to use ourselves as our own guide. By writing our Morning Pages, we learn to listen to that inner voice that may have been silent for a very long time. We have slowly learned that by trusting that voice and staying true to our dreams, we can be happy and creative and enjoy a life of great rewards. At the heart of this is our ability to trust ourselves and have faith that The Great Creator will support us as we follow our dreams.
Each of us has an inner dream that we can unfold if we will just have the courage to admit what it is. And the faith to trust our own admission....It is the inner commitment to be true to ourselves and follow our dreams that triggers the support of the universe.
<u>Mystery</u>
As a recoverying creative person, we need to be patient and allow our ideas to germinate. We should not expect miracles, but rather mysteries. Who knows exactly how ideas come about, but they do. The clues to our next grand idea appear like clues in our morning pages, in our sketch pads, in our dreams. We must be patient and gather these clues, allow the clues to be revealed to us, rather than forcing them to appear. We must have faith that the universe will give us all that we need to succeed.
The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.
Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise. All too often, when we say we want to be creative, we mean that we want to be able to be productive. Now, to be creative is to be productive -- but by cooperating with the creative process, not forcing it.
<u>The Imagination at Play</u>
Play is essential for our well-being as both artists and as human beings. I'm currently reading a book by Dorothy Einon called Play with a Purpose: Learning games for children six weeks to ten years. In this book she writes:
Adults play when they have nothing better to do....adult play is a means of filling in time between mainstream activities - like earning a living and rearing children. By contrast, practically everything a child does, when he has not been asked to do something else, is play. It can be joyful, it can be serious, it can be solitary, it can be social. It is frequently repetitive. And it is almost always creative.
Our hobbies provide us with a means to "play" and rejuvenate our souls. We play as we piece together a new quilt or brush watercolors on a canvas. Putting together a model or potting plants is play, too. Turn back to the things you loved to do or always wanted to do watch your spirit soar!
Spiritual benefits accompany the practice of a hobby. There is a release into humility that comes from doing something by rote. As we serve our hobby, we are freed from our ego's demands and allowed the experience of merging with a greater source. This conscious contact frequently affords us the perspectives needed to solve vexing personal or creative conundrums.
<u>Escape Velocity</u>
Just as we are about to move on to the next great thing in our lives, we are suddenly confronted by the one thing or one person who can (and will) keep us from moving forward. This is what Cameron calls "The Test". If we have been paying attention all these long weeks, if we have maintained our committment to the morning pages and artist dates, then we have the ability to pass the test. We can look into the eye of the over-demanding boss, the crazy-making friend/lover, the self-doubts and tell them "no". We can find new jobs. We can find time for our art. We have reached the "escape velocity" necessary for us to break free of our old lives and begin flying toward the new. "Escape velocity requires the sword of steely intention and the shield of self-determination." Even if you haven't been able to keep up, you still have these tools and more. They are always at your disposal. It is never to late to begin again. Baby steps, baby steps, and fly!
Topics for Discussion:
* Have you been doing your morning pages? If not, what has kept you from them?
* What are your creative goals for the rest of this year? this month? this week? today?
* Have you experienced any synchronicity? Have any opportunities presented themselve to you unexpectedly?
* How have you grown since beginning this course?
* What was your best artist date?
Edited to fix link.