Hello friends, I am looking forward to seeing you Wednesday. I'm had a very rough week and weekend. I'm wondering if our Artists way work is adding to it.  We are always dreaming, setting goals, looking ahead and taking baby steps.  All of this is adding to my newly-re emerged feelings of inadequacy.

One thing that is pretty overwhelming is all of the activities at the end of the chapters.  I wonder how you would all feel about postponing those until our time together.  I think that would really work for me.  Thoughts? Ann

Because you're a creative badass...

Interesting blog, passed along to me, now passing along to you...


http://justinemusk.com/2012/09/23/being-creative/

This Thursday September 20th

Hello Juicy Creatives,

Just a quick note saying I'd be happy to host this week, if that works for everyone.

Address is - 1320 Wilson St (that's North Menomonie)

I'll provide some wine, kombucha, tea and nibbles - wine people what's your preferred color - white or red?

Does the 6-7:30 time work for ya'all this week?

See you soon!
Tracy

A few musings that stirred me in the past few days:
"Feel the power and the freshness of your now: You decipher the contrast. You know what you don’t want. You send out your rocket of desire of what you do want, and now you stand in a fresh new place; you want in a fresh way that you have never wanted before. And that’s what life is. In that fresh wanting, you summon another dose of Energy. If you can begin to savor the mere fact that you have desire right now, and you would stop trying so hard to have that desire be fulfilled and manifested in some physical format, then you would have it." ~ Abraham/Hicks

"I am a frayed and nibbled survivor in a fallen world, and I am getting along. I am aging and eaten and have done my share of eating too. I am not washed and beautiful, in control of a shining world in which everything fits, but instead am wondering awed about on a splintered wreck I've come to care for, whose gnawed trees breathe a delicate air, whose bloodied and scarred creatures are my dearest companions, and whose beauty bats and shines not in its imperfections but overwhelmingly in spite of them."
—Annie Dillard

Big Challenge

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend with time to explore the artists core. Thanks to all of you for helping me to dig in and commit to this experiment. I feel some new roots and tiny green shoots. Reading the AW guidelines, I noticed the recommendation that each week in addition to reporting on our progress in general, we share the answers to questions and exercises (Tasks). We did a bit of that last week and I'd like to do more of that sort of sharing. As for the Week 4 suggestion that this week I deprive myself of reading @#%! yikes! - Yes my sly reading habits include reading a long list of delicious material from the ridiculous to the sublime - (no Dunn County News?) rather then taking some sort of action be it artistic or something else. How did she know the role reading plays in my recovery !!!! So, with some trepidation, I'll take a try. Owwwwie. Looking forward to Thursday's get-together.

Check-in Week Two

Hi, everyone.  My apologies for my tardiness in posting.  I went home early with brutal allergies on Thursday, and I overestimated both my energy level and access to internet while traveling yesterday for the funeral.

I read the chapter and did most of the assignments.  I was present to how I have eliminated most of the crazymakers in my life over the past several years.  The list used to be long! I completed my artist pages six of the seven days.  I went to a pottery shop for my artist date.  It was great to explore, but I went late in the day and the owner was trying to close up shop.  I felt rushed, and I hate that.  I am adding another artist date this week, because I didn't do one my first week.

Focusing on self-care this weekend.  Though it was good to see all my relatives, the funeral was exhausting, and I'm relieved to be back home.  This afternoon I am spending time with a couple of my kids from the theater company where I used to work.  Tomorrow I am spending time with a dear friend, going for a walk, and seeing a dance concert.

Have a wonderful, relaxing weekend.  Looking forward to seeing everyone at Ann's on Tuesday!

Amy

An Ebbing Week?

Hello,

Okay, here I am checking in, Friday afternoon, hot sun raining in the window. I was off like the shot early in our week - I was home alone last weekend, so I read the chapter and did all the exercises and now can't recall a thing...but there are notes.

What I learned from the exercises is that I feel fairly supported in my artistic endeavors, though there is still a part of me that feels it was 'easier' to explore this living elsewhere...ie, more progressive or larger communities (anonymity can be a powerful permission slip for expression). I also learned that slowly but surely, like a slow, more mature, mostly sure footed goat I am progressing up the mountain of my various goals. I truly believe there's a powerful ration of both our intentions and our attention to what we manifest and create.

I did 6 out of 7 days of morning pages - I know they are useful, oh yes, and sometimes I feel like a small child stuck with a chore (what's up with that). I'm not sure I'm surprised but I often found myself making lists and lists...the plan, the project, the piece, lists dreaming the dream of what I desire; artistically, personally and professionally - more and more there is little or no separation between these. I like lists :)

The creative bubbles are flowing less this week (like Marion I can attest to the power of the Big Lake and a little spaciousness to stir the pot and those creative impulses flow - this was up for me our first week). So this week was more of an ebbing space perhaps, more integration of those bubbles into a gestational space.

Artist date - I did write out letter and postcards. It wasn't very frivolous...so I'd like to up the anty (sp) on frivolous...I already see some good juice, meat and inquiry in this area. I can be supremely silly...but frivolity is a bit buried...I can be too serious, to intense to freakin' deep....

The last note worthy piece for me was noticing the value (or not) of discrimination. The value of discerning where I want to put my attention, it's kind of like intentionally prioritizing where and when I pull out all the stops and let it rip creatively and when it's okay to use less of that. This is still an unfinished line of thought...

Okay that's me! Have a lovely weekend and thank you - I am very happy to know you and be sharing this experience with you :)

Cheers,
Tracy

Blocking vs Unblocking

I'm back, eager to hear from all of you A great boost to my soul and to my creative connections to have enjoyed12 full days immersed in simply being on the shore of Lake Superior --listening to the wind, the water, watching the moon dance on the water, building a Fairy House for my grand daughters, playing my flutes out across the bouncing water. My artist dates: a trip across the Chequagamon Bay to hear Tracy tell stories at the Madeline Island Library and a visit to the Cornucopia home of visual artist Sally Bowker, a woman whose persistent creative efforts have always inspired me were both the perfect gifts to myself and to this process. I had a realization of the connection between morning pages and my dreams - on at least one night, what I wrote resulted in a vivid dream, unsettling, unresolved stuff rising, unclogging the pathways. The suggested assignments are focusing, sometimes irritating! however, I am beginning to see how the program is helping me to re-write my list of what I have to do every day and to make room for creative experiences. Smart. And I am very thankful for the suggested ways to quiet my inner critic, a sharp and persistent voice,and to identify voices other then my own that are not supportive as I move forward. Ann, thanks for setting up the blog. It's a neat little package! So in the theater, blocking tells the story; in Artists Way, "un-blocking," creates a new story.