Solitude & Sereni.tea

With the approach of every autumn, (if you are an educator, you, like me mibelieve that autumn starts with the first day of school), I find myself re-reading Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way. I have some of her other books as well, but this is the one I keep returning to. By estimation, I have started this program about 15 times, and finished it twice. It’s not easy. It’s 12 weeks of radical curiosity and self exploration. It has made me cry, and made me so angry, that I have thrown this book against the wall more than once. It’s made me laugh, and its made me recognize my own genius. There is a reason I keep returning to this book. It helps.

Since today is August 1st, it feels right for me to start this program again. And if I am to be honest with myself, the only thing that has stuck from past attempts is morning pages, and a non-regular artist date. If you aren’t familiar with either of those things, my version of morning pages is, every morning at 6:15am I take my coffee, head to my desk, and write in my journal for about 45 minutes. I fill 3 pages of stream of consciousness writing. I am often not even aware of what I am writing. It’s not always like that. Sometimes I complain and write about how my life positively sucks. Sometimes I write about how in love I am with my life. Sometimes I choose tarot cards and write about what I see in them and how it applies to a particular situation. But most of the time its stream of consciousness. And I write everyday, or almost everyday. But everyday is the aim – and it’s an important activity in my life. There wouldn’t be nearly as much growth in my life without these pages. There is one more rule about writing these pages – we do not go back and read what you have written. No good will come from that.

Artist dates are solo dates. And thats really all there is to it. You pick an activity that you can do by yourself for an hour or 2. And learn, or create, or just be. I have done artist dates where I have created paintings from blowing paint across a canvas with a straw (don’t inhale!), I have played with plastic dinosaurs at the toy shops in the children’s market, I have had many conversations with the spirit of Emily Carr, in her area of the Vancouver Art Gallery, I go to the movies alone, or take a book to the pub, I went to a public garden and looked for fairies, sometimes I will take a workshop on something that interests me but no one else in my social circle, like learning about plant music and how plants and flowers and trees communicate with each other. I have a hard time making this a regular practice. But I always love them. And I really need to make time for this in my life. Which is the reason why I am returning to this book/program this time around. I have even scheduled an artist date for tomorrow – I am going to the local art house theatre to watch some film noir. Two movies in a row. I feel luxurious that I have that kind of time on a Friday night.

I am going to sign off now – so I can start reconnecting with my higher self. And make a cup of yerba mate tea. There will be more Artist’s Way posts in the coming weeks, especially when I find myself getting frustrated with it.