Synchronicity

Synchronicities are like little bells ringing from the Mystery out of which we all arise, the Mystery that is our true self, saying, "Relax. Rest. It is good."

Thing that seem to come out of The Artist's Way: The Music Corner

All I want to do is relax,
lean back on the couch and smoke a
     nicely rolled joint,
     rolled on the back of a
Robert Hunter book.
     Hardcover: Daybreak
                       Daybreak on the land.
To live is only to want to relax.
To live as a human is so strange.
     What I'm experiencing has no words,
no fold, yes,
     it's the smoothing out of the blanket.
     The leveling of the playing field.
     Daybreak on the land.

Were there hints of it years ago in the hot
     and sweaty coliseums? In the dark,
     in the heat, and the lights --
              oh the lights --
     Daybreak!
     Daybreak on the land!

come on in to these experiences.
   the experience is yours.
   I can't be a person without an ego.
   To know this is a very relaxing thing.

If writing relaxes me, then do it.
   If The Wire does, then do that, too.
   If fucking does, well, get some if the
gettin's good.



April 2011
Austin, TX

Things I do when I'm not Reading (this week)

I have so many blogs, it varies where my art ends up. This one went right to the mama of my blogs, originally titled What Am I Doing Up? and richly and directly inspired by Ryan Adams and his posts on Tumblr. Thank you so much, Ryan. You kicked me back into writing and into the the creative world of the TumblBlog. Hmm, not sure how to spell that one!

Here I am, not reading. (click here)

:)

Reading Deprivation Week, Day 1

Week Four of The Artist's Way finds me not reading (and therefore not looking at email, Facebook, etc.). It also has me paying attention to and monitoring intake. Julia Cameron says this week:

If we monitor the inflow and keep it to a minimum, we will be rewarded for our reading deprivation 

with embarrassing speed.

It was helpful that she distinguishes such things as TV binging (insert hours of The Wire), drugs, sugar, gossip, radio, etc. I see that I don't need to cut all of these out all of the time, but to fully get the benefit . . . the aforementioned reward . . . I want to play along. I even turned off my phone last night before bed. After 8 pm I will turn it back on again. Not having it on, not having the screen to watch for text messages nor the movement to send a text, is giving me the sense of being on vacation. What I've so been craving.

It reminds me of going to the Vipassana courses in just a little way. Like, what will I do, who will I be, without my habits and hobbies? Yikes. Last time I went to a Vipassana course and stripped myself of all of my habits and hobbies - and added about six hours of meditation in each day - I went moderately bonkers. 

This afternoon I watched a wonderful video that Netflix had recommended to me. It's called How to Draw a Bunny, about the artist Ray Johnson. I love the synchronicity of this film of a creative life coming to me in the midst of The Artist's Way, and even more so, the synchronicity of Ray Johnson being primarily a collage-ist = one of my very favorite ways of creating art. Not only that, but last night I took down off of my wall the collage I'd made during my last run of AW, about a year and a half ago. I've loved the collage and have felt connected with it, but I had recently felt it was time to go ahead and take it down. See what might come next.

After I finished the Ray Johnson movie (and if you get it, be sure to watch the deleted scenes in the extras: there's some great stuff there), I spotted the above painting sitting on my table, waiting to be given away. So I took it with some thumb tacks across the street to the bus stop. It's sunny and windy outside today, warm and almost hot, and I was glad I had two thumb tacks - really push pins - and that they slipped into the wood so easily. The pole is covered in rusted staples from years of leaflets and concert announcement. I wonder how long my sign will stay up there and if it will make anyone smile?

I appreciate Sundays.

Authenticity

What's true for you?

We come into this world as unique manifestations, 6.8 billion fingers on the hand of God. Our individual expression is the expression of Divinity. It's so beautiful. We come in such variety.

Tonight I went on my Week 2 Artist Date. I went to a free meditation class in town, hosted by a teacher I've met a few times. About a year ago, I went [also on an Artist Date] to this class, in a comfortable yoga room at a local gym. I appreciated the structure (40 minutes of silent meditation, by whatever method, or non-method, you choose; followed by 15 - 20 minutes of questions and conversation with the teacher) and the realization that this teacher seemed to be awake, at least as I saw it.

As I saw it: that's the key point in this musing.

We really do get to go for what resonates with us, as individuals. It is a beautiful thing. We don't always realize that we're not doing this, but many times the work/family/friends life becomes regular and routine, and we don't question whether we're really stimulated in areas that fill us and open us up.

One of the rules of the Artist Date is that you go on your own. You don't bring friends with you, even though you might meet new people in the course of it. This is such an enriching experience for me, and it stretches me to reach out and into things that I've been curious about but I haven't gone for.

I never regret an Artist Date.

My first time through The Artist's Way I saw that my life was already full of activities - many done solo - that a lot of people would consider Artist Date-ish. But I couldn't rest on those things. I had to stretch.

I did things like
- shop for Airstream trailers,
- see a moving dance performance about Harriet Tubman, and
- volunteer for the Inside Books Project, an organization that sends books to incarcerated people.

All so very satisfying. All things I wouldn't have taken the time or energy to do had I not being going through this course.

And all specific to me and my heart.

Life loves to come through us in all of our myriad of movements. We never know what's going to come next. It's a wonderful mystery.

Do what you like: it's what God likes.

Dig?

AW Partners

Had a great meeting with my AW partner, Deborah G., this morning.

Deborah, I couldn't do this without you!

And you are such an amazing partner for me: encouraging, straight-talking, open, willing, reflecting, fun, smart, creative, caring, lovely.

I'm humbled by our relationship and journey, and I'm very psyched. Week 2, here we come!

Who's with us?

Taking My Artist on a Walk

One of the things I love about going through The Artist's Way is that the activities are so intentional.

I take lots of walks. So I don't usually opt for the Week One task, Take your artist on a walk. However, today I did, and it was intentional. Usually when I go out walking, I listen to music or talks on my Walkman. It's a sweet experience, but not quite the same as taking the artist out intentionally.

I went to a different location from where I usually go (thank you Debbie Philips for mentioning getting out of a rut in a recent edition of The Spark) and I didn't take my headphones. It was great. I got to hear the crunch of my shoes on the trail while I felt the bounce of the action. My mind was given alll that space out there by the pond to spread out. Nothing holding the thoughts in. Nothing holding the experience down or in.

I don't know what all factors contributed to that being a turning point in my day. It may simply have been that my system was ready to leave the depression behind, as it does most evenings, or if it was the freedom of the walk, or what. It doesn't matter.

Imaginary Lives Come True . . . Magic!

One of the reasons I chose to go through AW again is 'cuz it's fun, and I wanted to have more fun! One of my favorite tasks is 5 Imaginary Lives. Happily for me, we get to do this exercise more than once in the course. Here's my first run-through from this journey:

1. singer on tv
2. actress in funny tv comedy
3. independently wealthy traveler
4. someone who tours Appalachia and learns music from the people
5. magazine writer who travels in my Airstream and writes from National Park campgounds

:)

The second part of the exercise is to chose an activity related to one of these and do it. Since I was in bed, about to fall asleep when writing, I chose to brainstorm a quick list of ideas so I could fulfill the task in the busy week ahead. Here's what I wrote:

- learn a new rootsy song
- or another song
- perform a few songs for someone
- improv class
- go to a park and write a piece while there
- choose a destination and read a travel book about it
- go to travel section at Book People or the library and read a story
- get a CD or DVD of Appalachian music
- read a book about Appalachian culture/music
- make up a scenario for a tv show
- make up my character from a tv show, in detail

Again, :)

The next evening, after a hard day of struggling with difficult emotions (day really = a few weeks), I had the opportunity to help out a friend who was stranded on my side of town and needed a ride back to his vehicle, which happens to be, well, sort of like a camper.

Within an hour I found myself in a cozy setting, in a camper-like deal (see Airstreams above and throughout this blog, I'm sure), listening to a new song ("We are allll in this togetherrrrrrrrrrrrrr") performed by my friend, and then teaching him to play and sing "Long, Black Veil." Can anyone say rootsy? Awe yeah.

I felt highly potent, as I saw how my ideas for these activities, penned just before sleep, had generously and gently manifested without me having to put effort in, mental or otherwise.

Imaginary lives come true . . . magic.

Go.

p.s. Here I am singing "Long, Black Veil" about a year ago, toward the end of my first trek through AW.