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.