First Date
I am supposed to take my Artist Child on dates. I can't remember. Are they supposed to be 2 hours in length? Mine was 34 minutes. A walk down the hill, to the 5-and-dime store to buy a notebook for my "morning pages" (that's something else I'm supposed to do, every morning... three pages of long-hand writing... what an indulgence!).
I bought three notebooks, red, and I'm looking for the perfect pen. I noted that when I signed the credit card slip, I liked that pen, but I'd already bought a different kind. I wrote the signing-pen model down in my red notebook, on the way out of the store. My hands were shaking, like it was the most important thing in the world, to write this down. Maybe I will come back next week, in search of fluidity and the just-right feel between my fingers.
Was my date a success or a failure, or something in between? Why do I feel the need to judge it.
Here is what I noticed along the way. Plastic sprinkle cover, blue ribbon strangling the end of a popped balloon (no, I am making that up... I think the balloon was gone... I think I make things up like this... why do I make things up), a $50 lottery ticket...tattered (I assume not a winner), leaves on a bush... looking coppery and flat like pennies crushed in those machines you can pay money to crush pennies in, a white plastic spoon (I cannot just walk... I force myself to remember... why must I always make myself work even when I'm supposedly at play?)
The sidewalks are broken, snow gone ('til tomorrow... I hear a woman on a cell phone "biggest Nor-easter, supposed to start tonight and last through tomorrow")... snow will come and bury the sprinkle cover, the flat penny leaves, the $50 lottery ticket and its losses, the white spoon, a lone tissue and a ragged styrofoam cup ripped in half.
What makes an Artist Date a success? Does it matter? I went, didn't I. Wasn't that the hardest part. Even if I did buy chocolates and stickers for the girls (goodness, it's almost Valentine's Day). Is it okay to do things for other people when I'm out on a date with me?
I bought three notebooks, red, and I'm looking for the perfect pen. I noted that when I signed the credit card slip, I liked that pen, but I'd already bought a different kind. I wrote the signing-pen model down in my red notebook, on the way out of the store. My hands were shaking, like it was the most important thing in the world, to write this down. Maybe I will come back next week, in search of fluidity and the just-right feel between my fingers.
Was my date a success or a failure, or something in between? Why do I feel the need to judge it.
Here is what I noticed along the way. Plastic sprinkle cover, blue ribbon strangling the end of a popped balloon (no, I am making that up... I think the balloon was gone... I think I make things up like this... why do I make things up), a $50 lottery ticket...tattered (I assume not a winner), leaves on a bush... looking coppery and flat like pennies crushed in those machines you can pay money to crush pennies in, a white plastic spoon (I cannot just walk... I force myself to remember... why must I always make myself work even when I'm supposedly at play?)
The sidewalks are broken, snow gone ('til tomorrow... I hear a woman on a cell phone "biggest Nor-easter, supposed to start tonight and last through tomorrow")... snow will come and bury the sprinkle cover, the flat penny leaves, the $50 lottery ticket and its losses, the white spoon, a lone tissue and a ragged styrofoam cup ripped in half.
What makes an Artist Date a success? Does it matter? I went, didn't I. Wasn't that the hardest part. Even if I did buy chocolates and stickers for the girls (goodness, it's almost Valentine's Day). Is it okay to do things for other people when I'm out on a date with me?
Labels: art pilgrimage, artist's date, The Artist's Way
posted by L.L. Barkat at
5:14 PM
5 Comments:
I love the Artist's Way. I read it and have been doing morning pages, but haven't officially done the program - starting it up "officially" on Ash Wednesday with a "virtual creative cluster". That means I'll have to take myself on artist dates. I have no idea what I'm going to do, for said artist dates. :-P Should be interesting. But like you said, I think the point is that you went. You did it. Kind of like doing morning pages. There's really no way to do it "wrong".
i did the artist's way many years ago.
i burned the pages.
also,
got wayyyyy too focused on my self.
artist's date ideas:
used book store
recycled building supply
a poetry reading :-)
flea market
NO worries...I was only referring to the discipline required to go through the exercises Julia Cameron recommends. I often start such creative exercises with a creative burst and then life crowds them out. I am left feeling disappointed in myself.
Just today I told the boys how I desire to take some photography classes. In the same breath I couldn't help saying, "maybe in retirement".
Life is what we are living, right? I'm trying not to crowd mine too much right now. Just enjoying the gift of each day. If that means I write (longhand style) then that is an added bonus!
Ha ha - I love that I am not the only one who gets excited to write...or to buy the notebook...or to find the "perfect" pen...or to notice the oddest things.
Beautiful, as always.
Bina
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