When I do morning pages I do notice I'm calmer for the rest of the day, same with reading first thing in the morning, but neither happen much since I have become a mom.

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sj, it's funny, because in the past, the artist's date would have been a challenge for me because of my anxiety. After nine months of pandemic lockdown though, there are plenty of things I am ready to do or try, but the ones that appeal to me (museums, movies alone, etc) I can't do until we're vaccinated.

By the same token, I don't want to do stuff that feels like homework. I think for now, it's going to mostly be trying new recipes, revisiting favorite books, and movies (and stuff like that) for the dates. I want to give the program a fair shot, but I'm not big on long walks in the cold, and I'm not going to risk my family's health, or my own, by going to the places I'd like to go right now.

Amy, I don't blame you. If I were working, I couldn't see myself getting up a half hour earlier to do anything. Also, it takes me longer than a half hour -- more like an hour, because I'm doing them first thing in the morning, which is when I'm my most poky.

This is only day three of the pages for me, but I can see where they'll help me. Building muscle memory and submitting to a discipline of writing, even when I don't want to or have nothing to say, seems to be something I need right now.

sj, I think it's really difficult when your children are small and need you a lot (not just quality time but quantity too). At least that was true for me. It's a little bit of a shame, because I remember a big creative surge when my babies were born, but I was too tired and busy to do anything other than mother them (and think). When ltc is in school full time, it might come easier to you.

For creativity inspiration, I liked Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg.

Thanks, Amy. I will have to check that out. I got Cameron's The Artist Way book, morning pages journal, and workbook for Christmas.

Aside: If anyone starts to consider this program, I can already tell you to save yourself some money and frustration of buying Cameron's TAW branded journal. I think her TAW book is worth it (so far), but for your morning page, use the kind of notebook in which you like to write. The one that comes as part of the TAW starter kit is too thick to write in comfortably. Your arm/wrist/hand is in too many different positions as you move down the page.

Hi Beverly, even if you didn't mean to pop in.

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I'm in an odd mood. I may regret finally posting this, but here goes....

Do you recognize this?

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth...."

from "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee Jr.

I've always loved that first line, and hated the rest of the poem.

I haven't flown as anything other than a passenger in 26 years. But (to adapt a quote), I still "...walk the earth with my eyes turned skyward, for there I have been, and there I will always long to return."

My first textbook when I started learning to fly was The Joy of Soaring. That title has triggered a lot of thoughts in the decades since then. I've been noodling at this for at least 35 years. In prose they boil down to:

There is a joy in soaring, just as there is in sailing, or driving, or skiing, or surfing, or even dancing. The combination of physical motion, mental stimulation, and exercise of technical proficiency creates a profound, layered, *textured* experience of synergistic pleasure.

Which seems pretentious, but I like it anyway.

I've never been able to turn it into poetry, just thoughts and fragments. I release them into the wild. Perhaps they will inspire thoughts in others.

• *********

There is a joy in motion
That takes my cares away

There is a joy in soaring
In breeze that blows against the ridge
Or thermal swirling higher
Or mountain wave so glassy smooth
Which rises, falls, repeats

There is a joy in surfing
Balancing the wave's surging lifting push
Against gravity's sliding falling pull

There is a joy in sailing
With sounds of wind above and water below
Making the best of current and course
Adapting to constant variation

There is a joy in driving
Speed and brake and turn and go
Skid and slide, twist and recover
Playing with velocity and uncertain traction

There is a joy in walking
Old sights, new sights, arriving home again
It's about the journey, not the destination
"The road goes ever on and on...." to steal a phrase.

There is a joy in motion
That takes my cares away

• *********

I've never been any good at dancing. The closest I've come to it has been flying. "Danced the skies..." yes, but "...laughter-silvered wings"? Pfui.

I haven't yet found anything nice to say about running.
I find no joy in running, myself.
All my thoughts get overwhelmed by an incessant internal voice, relentlessly counting every breath and every step.
Odd that it doesn't happen when I'm walking.
The runners I see don't look like they enjoy it either.
I've never seen a runner who looked happy while running.
Yet still they run.
I hope they catch what they are chasing.
I never did.

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Thank you for sharing that, dcp! I think all of us have thoughts like that at one time or another, that just sort of burrow and stay, until you make some sense of them.

I especially liked the driving one, because driving (no traffic, windows down, music on) is one of my pleasures.

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That was lovely, dcp. Thanks for sharing with us.

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That's awesome, dcp.

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Hey back, Cindy. Popping in again to see what I missed, and I have to recommed Bird by Bird by Annie Lammott. It is possible I have used too many double letters in rendering her name but I'm too lazy to look it up. Some of her later work has value, but the Goldberg and the Bird book were helpful.

If anyone's interested in doing Artists' Way, I have a new, shrinkwrapped boxed kit thing, and a nearly-new book, yours for the cost of postage. Profile's good.

DCP, I sat with that poem for a while. It's very visual, very visceral, and breathtaking, in a way that recalls the sensation of velocity and the exhilaration of controlling forward movement. It speaks to me. Thank you for sharing it.

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Thank you all for the kind words. Six months on, and I still have mixed feelings about having posted it.

Stet.

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I tried The Artist's Way, but my life is, like, this huge messy blob that I don't really run on a good day, and then I have to find a way to seduce my muse...like the thought, but kinda don't think so. Anyway, I'm here cause I'm bad at plotting. What might a newbie candidate(who's also my character's annoying college close-to-frenemy that she hasn't seen in years) want a private investigator to look into?

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A political candidate?

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