Finding Water Chapter 6 -Artists Way

Take those small steps

Finding Water Week 6- author Julia Cameron

Uncovering a sense of Resolve

All creativity requires grounded action. There is nothing airy-fairy about the artist’s world. It requires good husbandry. Making art requires that we put our shoulders to the wheel. Action is the key to success. In this week’s tasks, you will focus on small actions that lead to a larger unfolding. Just as a bucket is filled a drop at a time, so too a creative life develops by the smallest acts. One more time, you will invite the great creator’s aid on your behalf. You may experience a sense of heightened autonomy as you undertake long postponed endeavors.

Savoring 1

Finding myself caught in the self-questioning, missing the day at hand. Julia fights to  have her day. She is determined to.

Life unfolds one day at a time, and we must let it. This is the discipline I have set for myself. Allow it to unfold.  Getting all crazy and outlining every step of the way builds on the anxiety which robs me.

It is so easy to rush ahead into fear and panic. It is so easy to miss the beauty that awaits us in the here and now. The tiniest things can bring joy. We must pause to catch the moment and savor our delight. Savoring the moment is a learned art, and it is an art that must be practiced to be perfected.

As an artist it does me good to have the safety of the Morning Pages that I write daily. There is a steadiness to the pages. They “mother” me. It also does me good to take an artist date. It’s not big dates but small adventures.

Divining Rod task work- 5 delights see the world as an interesting stranger sees it. 

Personal note: Can you tell I love doing this stuff...that is going deeper, hanging on the introspective side of things. I can say it's just me...which it is but I don't want to stop there.  The morning pages have been and will continue to be my mothering place.  The husbandry of it all is that small action steps for sure.  I know I've been rambling on about what I've been doing.  Frustrating as it is to not be able to have big swats of time to work on this especially during the holiday season I'be been giving myself those small time slots. At the end of the day it feels good that I've move forward instead of being frustrated that an idea was whirling and never has a spot to land and get grounded.  

Delights

1. again at the post office, I walked up the side walk and out came three people, Each as they pass looking at me eye to eye with a big smile. My first thought was wow...that kind of odd three different people all happy like that...I know it's not that I look like a beauty queen cause it was after a good walk in the woods. When I entered into the post office line I sensed the joy and happiness of the people.  It was great to see. With all of us in a rush these days being in the post office waiting in line has not been a pleasant place for people...the complain a lot or make funny noises.  I shared that with the clerk when I got up there and she was also delighted to hear how people were smiling when they came out. 

2. I have to say it tickles me so how the husband and I are become more up front and honest with ourselves and situation and seeing the humor in it. 

3. The whole ideas of letting things unfold is not new but it's something that you have to work at...I do have a tendency to push ahead...so just the mind set is helpful...when I get that going after a bit of spillage and whining on the page the acceptance of life and the unfolding is so awesome. 

That's all I have for now....

Feelings Aren’t Facts 2

Helen Keller-Everything has it’s wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.

Julia just had a negative week or emotional binge, some call it a dry drunk. She describes feeling not sober enough, unable to see the beauty and hope all around, instead caught up in feelings of despair. Feelings aren’t facts. She tells herself to keep it simple. It is shared to keep yourself small during times like this. Find small actions and take them. God lives in the concrete actions not in the abstract. “Wash your hair” Each small action restores a sense of optimism and with optimism comes hope.  Try to do the next right thing and what is the next right thing? She shares about lying in bed with a parade of thoughts that all turn toward dramatic. Hope is what tells us that there is always a tiny something that is possible, some place for God to meet us.

Divining Rod task work-I have to learn many self-protective measures. You cannot think your way into right actions but you can act your way into right thinking. We can train ourselves to act in our own behalf.

List ten small actions that you could take which would make you feel better. Choose the smallest and least threatening and execute it.

Personal Note: The past two years I've had bouts of the Emotional Binge...with hormone rising and falling out the bottom I'm wondering how I made it through...but I did by doing just what she's doing bring things down and taking small action steps.  Assigning myself assignment keeping little list and checking those off.  And then they pass....Feelings I've been learning more about them as to not believe them. Things rise up like she says a parade of thoughts I've actually had to tell myself to stop and get active or go make that bed...do the dishes...

I'm so glad all of this has come and thought it may rise up again I do know now it passes...as they say its Hell in the Hallway thought. 

Ten small acts 

1. keep walking

2. take dogs to dog park

3. read a chapter in a book

4. clean my stove

5. make my bed every day

6. do the dishes

7. walk into the studio and see what I can do each day even if it's just to stand there. 

that is all I have now.....

Rain 3

There is much to be said about dailiness, for braving the elements in the name of routine. Life is made of small sweetness’s, and they come to us when we are willing to be little, instead of big.

It is good to sneak up on an enthusiasm.

Divining Rod Task work-Childlike wonder take yourself to a children’s section in a book store or library and read something of interest. See what sparks.

Personal note:  for what ever this means I've been turned on to the Enneagram and found out I'm a personality type 4 and well finding stuff out like this is tugging at that childlike wonder...I want to learn more...all this stuff that I do as of artist way, etc...is about my personality type...I do love getting deeper in to the whys of things and trying to understand where feelings come from etc. So never made it to the children book store or the library this time but I have tons of books I've collected over the 20 years I've been doing the artist way...so feel I've got that one licked. 

The stubbornness of dreams 4

Julia admires people that keep on going despite the odds.

Act your way into right thinking.

Set up a gentle grid and stick to it. Go back to basic.

She believes that when she’s in the black or bleak period, that is will pass.

When we work towards our dreams, we are working toward our God. In reaching for guidance about our dreams, we are reaching toward God. Our dreams are not futile. They do not spring from our egos. They have their roots in our souls. 

As an artist it can be very difficult to sort through destructive criticism.

 (God also stands for Good Orderly Direction)

Walking has a way of drawing pain to scale.  A step at a time we are led forward and sometimes those steps are literal. Praying for guidance, she was told to push forward. To be an artist, one needs a good dose of stubbornness.

There is warning on depending on one source for our well-being. God has a thousand ways to meet you, do not look for someone else to give your dream permission to go forward.

When you make one person or place the source of your lucky break, you are denying the power of God who can worked from many corners. Trust God and look for leads.

Every artist carries with in him an Inner dreamer. The dreamer might be called “the believer” the part of us that is willing to go forward on faith.

One of the chief forms the Devil as she calls it takes is an urge on our part toward self-sufficiency. We count on ourselves and stop counting on a Higher Power. We feel that we ought to be able to figure things out and when we cannot, we conclude that we are phonies, has-beens, crazy. (been there)

What we are after, all that we need, is a sip of water. Our challenge is finding water when we are in spiritual drought. We need the gently draught of encouragement, the water of spiritual truth. There is God, We need to hear. You are cared for, we need to believe.

Divining Rod Task work-Write a letter to God About anything and everything and that is currently bothering you. Then Write a second time as if God was writing you back.

What is Art: It is the response of man’s creative soul to the call of the Real-Rabindranath Togore. 

Personal Note: Been a interesting week...Nothing like what has been shared here from The book Finding Water.  I've had a good week as of an interview or artist profile published in the Somerset Studio's Magazine Jan/Feb Issue and was accepted into an exhibit in Berlin..which now I'm feeling a bit of anxiety about as I've not had to deal with all the mailings to another country...lots of hoops to jump through.  Adventure is good, trying something new is good to...as long as I seek a bit of guidance or Good Orderly Directions I'll do fine or drive my family nuts as go through it. 

On to the small creative acts this week to keep it moving forward and I have a Wonderful Pile to work though.  So funny but I've heard be thankful for the things that happen that might not be favorable in your life.  I found that to be true because the attitude that follows it is so cool.   Sorry rambling again.. it opens a door to see new ways to grow and be in the solution and live a good life despite the droughts and binges.