Artist's Way Seminar: After The Third Day

Back home again.  I had booked a hotel room in Pennsylvania to break the drive from Massachusetts into two smaller, more manageable bits, but I was too homesick for my family to wait.

And so I drove the whole way and am exhausted this morning...but I am blissfully home, much to the family and the doggie's contentedness.

Yesterday's final session with the Artist's Way seminar was really enlightening.

Julia Cameron has a really crafty way of drawing you out on things you haven't thought about in years, or haven't let yourself think about because they "aren't practical."  But that make great motivators or rewards for your artist when you allow yourself to dream a little.

Very fun stuff.

One of her exercises had us thinking about things as if we were looking at the larger-than-life Hollywood version of ourselves, where money and budget, accuracy to our actual life, and all the other practicalities that get int he way no longer exist.

So, thinking about your own life in those terms, what would the view from your favorite room in your house be?  What would you be wearing?  Where would you have traveled that you have never gone before?  What talents do you have?

And a very fun one:  who would you cast as yourself in your movie?


We also had an assignment to write an artist's prayer for ourselves that we then shared with our little cluster groups first thing.  It was an interesting exercise, and it dug up a lot of personal stuff for me to think about in terms of where I need to ask for help along the way.  I wanted to share a small excerpt of my prayer with you all:

Dear Lord,

Please help me to stop listening to that nagging inner voice that is never satisfied and always finding faults;  and instead

To begin to listen to my heart, which is saying "yes, yes, yes you can!  and you will!  and it will be wonderful!"

I think we can all use a bit more of that in our lives, can't we?

After the seminar ended, I grabbed some lunch in the dining room -- some yummy pad thai with a peanut sauce that was beyond awesome (and for which, I have the recipe which I will share -- yay!), and then hit the road.

Here's my funny story:  I pulled into a gas station in upstate NY, just off the Taconic Parkway, only to find Julia and her assistant/musical collaborator Emma at the same gas station.  Small world!

Emma and I were laughing inside about desperately needing a non-curried food substance stat as we perused the quickie mart food offerings.  Hope they were able to make the drive home safely, as the roads were seriously flooded on the way out to Kripalu for them from some serious rain and melting snow.

Anyway, for me (and the dogs, who are pitifully rubbing on my legs demanding scratches) life is good this morning.  But it is going to be a couple of days before I'm back to my normal routine.  Until then?  More coffee, and some serious clutter pick-up -- amazing how much of it piled up in my absence.  Hmmmmmmmm...

More Artist's way seminar/trip report posts:

- Detour
- Prelude
- After The First Day
- After The Second Day

(Photo via David Blackwell.  Great shot!)