Hi Friends,
I wanted to let those of you who follow my life know that I finished all twelve weeks of the The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. It is a book with a class of sorts contained within. The course is designed to take 12 weeks. It ended up taking me 16 weeks to finish because during the holidays I took some breaks. I spent multiple weeks reading some chapters and I found it hard to get much done on weeks when my chidden had any breaks from school. Also I sort of got stalled about 3/4 of the way through the book. I was on chapter 9 for probably almost 3 weeks. I nearly didn’t finish the book because I found it hard to progress past week 9.
Still, I finished! I finished about two weeks ago. A confession: I did not do all of the exercises that are contained at the end of the chapters. Chapter 9 seemed to be where I stopped doing multiple experiences in each chapter. I found that some weeks I had more time for The Artist’s Way than others. I also wasn’t the best person about taking my weekly Artist’s Dates but I did do them sometimes and taking the Artist’s Dates did add something to my life.
I did however do my morning pages faithfully everyday while I was working through the book! In fact, I got started on working on the Artist’s Way because I learned about doing the value of doing morning pages on another blogger’s blog. I began doing the morning pages, my journal records indicate, in late March of 2022. I did not learn that the pages were part of book called the Artist’s Way until July of 2022, when my sister L. introduced me to the book. Though it must be noted that my consistency with writing my morning pages everyday was somewhat sporadic until late September of 2021 when I began The Artist’s Way in earnest. Since the, I have been fairly faithful about doing them everyday, though occasionally life circumstances prevent me from doing them.
Since I finished The Artist’s Way, about two weeks ago, life has been busy. My family has has a few illnesses and there seems to be a number of school projects that have been due lately. However, on one of the last pages, the author, Julia Cameron, asks the reader to pledge to continue doing the morning pages for at least 90 more days after completing the book. For this reason, among others, I am continuing to do them.
Before I finished the book, I asked myself if I was going to continue doing them after I was done. I did not know how to continue without doing the morning pages. They have become engrained in my life. They are now part of my morning routine. I am glad that on one of the last pages, she asked her readers to continue doing them because I have come to depend on them.
So how am I faring now that I am finished? As I mentioned, recently, life has felt busy. It has felt like a relief of sorts that I have finished this project. While I was stalled on chapter 9, I wondered to myself, if I would feel proud when I finished. I looked forward to the finish line, but now that I am done, I do not know if I feel the way that I thought that I would feel. I do feel proud to have finished this project that I wanted to dive into. But I do not know if I feel that pride that I hoped to feel.
I did commemorate finishing the Artist’s Way by writing a review of it for my Goodreads account. This provided me with closure of sorts, but still, I feel like finishing this chapter was worthy of something more substantial. That is why I am writing this blog post.
Perhaps, instead of gaining a huge feeling of accomplishment, undertaking and finishing The Artist’s Way has given me something else. The morning pages have given me a place to put my thoughts. The morning pages have given me the freedom to keep on writing even when I have mixed thoughts about the quality or validity of what I am writing. I am beginning to learn how to “rest on the page”. The morning pages have began to teach me how to censor myself less and let it flow more.
I feel pride for having written morning pages consistently for quite some time. Here is a picture of all the notebooks that I have filled since I first started with morning pages in late March of 2022. This does not include the half filled butterfly notebook that I am currency writing in. Mostly, I write on both sides of the page. I almost always write in cursive because it is faster. I try not to worry about what I write.
When I was a child, I used to take up diary writing from time to time. I would always abandon my journals after a short while. My sisters who were closet in age to me, J. and A. and I would play an informal game where we would try to find each other’s diaries where they would be hidden. Then we would read each other’s diaries but we would not tell the person whose diary we read. Instead, we would wait until an inopportune time, such as when we were in the car with my father after church. Then we would say something life “A. likes such and such boy, I read that in her diary.” Then the sister who we tattled on would be extremely embarrassed and maybe wouldn’t do journaling again or would maybe redact their journal with a marker. (I should point out, that it did not bother my father if we liked whatever boy was named, it bothered the tattled-on sister but nobody else cared.)
For a long time, I thought this is why I had the tendency to occasionally write in a journal, but then destroy the journal if I found it after a period of time. I did this a number of times. I would purchase a notebook, or even once a beautiful journal and write in it a few times. I would start to worry that something might happen to me and the journal would be discovered. Eventually, I would rip it up, burn it, hose it off, do whatever to it in hopes that nobody would ever find it. Then the cycle would begin again.
I always blamed this fear I had of journals on the mean thing my sisters and I would do to each other. But I don’t really think that is why I did I destroyed so many journals. This morning, while I was thinking about writing about all of this blog post, I found an article in the New Yorker that suggested a number of reasons why people don’t journal. It helped me realize that a lot of people are afraid of their own thought and words and they do not want other people to find them.
So this is one thing that The Artist’s Way has given me, I find myself being less afraid of my thoughts now. A year ago, I do not think that I would have ever though that I could fill this many notebooks in such a small amount of time. I would have been too afraid of my thoughts to think this was possible. The morning pages have also brought me more trust in others. I leave my morning pages journal in the living room everyday and nobody in my family ever touches notebooks or looks at them. This is to say that I would be comfortable with others reading them where I to pass away, but leaving them in the living room is a big step for me.
Here are some other things I have started doing since I began The Artist’s Way:
I started playing the guitar, which is something that I wanted to do for about 20 years. I can play Jingle Bells, on a good day, and sometimes can play up to 4 different chords.
I bought multiple recorders for my family and I found a recorder music book in a free pile and my family is going to learn how to play Happy Birthday for Preschool Nugget’s birthday at the end of the month.
I bought construction paper and craft supplies so I can do crafting with boys, which is something that I didn’t think about much before because they did not seem interested in crafts.
While doing The Artist’s Way, I felt more adventurous about watching movies and TV even if there is a certain amount of tension in the plot.
I have been finding myself placing more interest in helping Preschool Nugget explore his musical side since his teachers have been telling me that he does very well with singing and playing instruments at school.
This is all to say, that I am glad that I undertook The Artist’s Way. Perhaps, in a certain amount of time in the future, maybe six months or so, I will re-examine the gains that have stuck with me since I have finished The Artist’s Way.
Did you do The Artist’s Way? What where your thoughts after finishing it? Did it all more creativity to come into your life? Reply below.
If you are interested, here is my original post about starting my work on The Artist’s Way from September of 2022.
