A is for Alphabet - by Nan Brooks
Continuing with the letter A as a prompt for this weekly
bloggish contribution, I am thinking about The Artist’s Way and
inspiration in general. And art. And prayer, because it all kind of flows
together, one way or another. For today, I’m focused on The Artist’s Way.
The book by
Julia Cameron is a guide to a daily practice for people who want to be more
creative. The name is kind of misleading because most of us don’t think of
ourselves as artists. But we are creative all day long. We create an image of
ourselves when we decide what clothing to wear. We create ways to nourish
ourselves and the people we love when we create a meal. Even my mom cutting a
plain old peanut butter and jelly sandwich into triangles sparked something in
me when I was a kid. A new shape was fascinating to me; and the sandwich tasted
better. It's lunch time. Where was I? Oh, yes.
We are all creative and most of the time we don’t know it. The
Artist’s Way changed my life because over the course of 12 chapters and 12
weeks, I formed new habits that helped me believe in myself, in my intentions for my life. I didn’t know they were habits until I finished the
book and discovered that I missed the practices Cameron suggests. They are
simple, and like many simple ideas, they are powerful.
Morning Pages are simple, for instance. Cameron's instructions are to just write three
pages first thing in the morning. Write about anything and everything and
nothing. It clears my head, and if I just keep the pen moving, I discover all
sorts of things about what I am really thinking as I putter through my days.
This journaling and keeping the pen moving thing isn’t new, but it seems
different somehow under Cameron’s guidance.
I recommend getting the book, finding a few like-minded
folks to meet and talk about the exercises once a week, and sticking with it. Nice
thing is that nowadays, Zoom lets me meet with friends across the country.
Cameron has produced a few off-shoots, probably because her publisher
recognized a gold mine. Walking in the World is one, so are Vein of
Gold and Finding Water. It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again is
one I just worked through with friends. It is intended for retired people who
get to discover old dreams and ideas and new energy and time to do creative
stuff. Seems to me it’s a nice tool for all of us who are newly stuck at home,
furloughed, at lose ends or bored.
There is a spiritual aspect to Cameron’s work and the
influence of 12-Step practice and knowledge with its depth and sheer
practicality is clear. But it isn’t preachy and doesn’t proselytize a religion or sobriety.
I believe that art and spirit/spirituality are connected.
Maybe I’ll muse about that next week.
Meanwhile, I hope you will notice what you do to make your
life easier and more enjoyable and how you do the same for others. In other
words, I hope you notice how creative you are. Rock on!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI've made a note about Cameron's books - even came close to ordering the main one, hitting an awkward pause when I saw that (on Amazon) having them ship me a trade copy would be less expensive than having it show up on my Kindle (ridiculous!), which helped slow me down enough to realize that I still have a similar (though through a slightly different medium) book of creativity exercises I've been meaning to make the time for since December. So much needs to change in my daily life.
ReplyDelete(I deleted my earlier comment, which was the above plus a tone-deaf, prolix digression.)