Question: "Do you know how old I'll be by the tie I learn to play the piano?"  Answer: "The same age you will be if you don't." (pg. 138) 

"Creativity occurs in the moment, and in the moment we are timeless." (pg. 139)

"Our use of age as a block to creative work interlocks with our toxic finished-product thinking.  We have set an appropriate age on certain activities: college graduation, going to med school, writing a first book.  This artificial ego requirement asks us to be done when what we truly yearn for is to start something."  (pg. 140)


Take the next small step...

Julia calls this "Filling in the Form".  She says to take the next small step instead of skipping ahead to a large one for which you may not yet be prepared. (pg. 140).

Filling in the form means that you take turtle steps in the direction you want to go.  My Buddhist teacher's teacher  (Tim Burkett) has used the phrase "dim vision" when speaking about a person's work in the spiritual practice.  He states that a person has a dim vision, something that they want to work towards or achieve. Then, you take turtle steps in that direction.  You can stop, you can pause, you can change directions but you keep moving forward. 

"Creativity requires activity..." (pg. 142)
"Small actions lead us to the larger movements in our creative lives." (pg. 143)

"FILL IN THE FORM!  WHAT CAN YOU DO, RIGHT NOW, IN YOUR LIFE AS IT IS CURRENTLY CONSTITUTED? DO THAT THING!" (pg. 143)


Recovering a Sense of Compassion

In this chapter, Julia says "We will undertake healing the shame of past failures."

FEAR

"Blocked artists are not lazy. They are blocked." pg. 151

"The blocked artist does not know how to begin with baby steps.  Instead, the blocked artist thinks in terms of great big scary impossible tasks..." pgs. 151-152

"Fear has roots in childhood reality." "First of all, you must give yourself permission to begin small and go in baby steps. These steps must be rewarded.  Setting impossible goals creates enormous fear, which creates procrastination, which we wrongly call laziness." pg 152
 

ENTHUSIASM

"Over an extended period of time, being an artist requires enthusiasm more than discipline.  Enthusiasm is not an emotional state. It is a spiritual commitment, a loving surrender to our creative process, a loving recognition of all the creativity around us." Pg. 153

"Remember that art is a process. The process is supposed to be fun.  At the heart of this play is the mystery of joy." pg. 154

CREATIVE U-TURNS

"At some point, we must make an active choice to relinquish the joys and privileges accorded to the emotional invalid.  This can be very threatening as a self-concept to those who are used to getting their needs met by being unhappy." pg. 154

"We usually commit creative hara-kiri either on the eve of or in the wake of a first creative victory." pg. 154

"In dealing with our creative U-turns, we must first extend ourselves some sympathy." pg. 156

"A successful creative career is always built on successful creative failures." pg. 156

"To recover from a creative U-turn, ore a pattern involving many creative U-turns, we must first admit that it exists.  Yes, I did react negatively to fear and pain. Yes, I do need help." pg. 157

BLASTING THROUGH BLOCKS

"In order to work freely on a project, an artist must be a least functionally free of treatment (anger) and resistance (fear)....Blocks are seldom mysterious. They are instead, recognizable artistic defenses against what is perceived (rightly or wrongly) as a hostile environment. pg.158

DO THE POWERFUL EXERCISE ON PG. 159-160 - QUESTIONS 1-5.
 

Recovering a Sense of Self-Protection

"Saying no can be the ultimate self-care." Claudia Black
"Every creative person has myriad ways to block creativity." pg. 163

"Now, note carefully that food, work, and sex are all good in themselves. It is the abuse of them that makes them creativity issues. Knowing yourself as an artist means acknowledging which of these you abuse when you want to block yourself." pg. 164

"Rather than paint, write, cache audition, and see where it takes us, we pick up a block. Blocked, we know who and what we are: unhappy people.  Unblocked, we may be something much more threatening - happy.  For most of us, happy is terrifying, unfamiliar, out of control, too risky! Is it any wonder we take temporary U-turns?" pg. 154

TAKE THE WORKAHOLISM QUIZ pg. 167-68

"One way to achieve clarity about our time expenditures is to keep a daily checklist and record of our time spent.  Even an hour of creative work/play can go a long way toward offsetting the sense of workaholic desperation that keeps our dreams at bay." pg. 168
 

DROUGHT

"In any creative life there are dry seasons.  We feel we have nothing to say, and we are tempted to say nothing. These are the times when the morning pages are most difficult and most valuable." Pg. 169
 

FAME

"Remember, treating yourself like a precious object will make you strong. When you have been toxified by the fame drug, you need to detox by coddling yourself. What's in order here is a great deal of gentleness and some behavior that makes you like yourself. Sending postcards is a great trick. Mail one to yourself that says, "You are doing great...It is very nice to get fam letters from ourselves." pg. 172

COMPETITION

"Competition is another spiritual drug.  When we focus on competition we poison our own well, impede our own progress. When we are ogling the accomplishments of others, we take our eye away from our own through line.  We ask ourselves the wrong questions, and those wrong questions give us the wrong answers." pg. 172

"Let us concern ourselves first and foremost with what it is within us that is struggling to be born." pg. 173

"Whenever you are angered about someone else beating you out, remember this: the footrace mentality is always the ego's demand to be not just good but also first and best. It is the ego's demand that our work be totally original - as if such a thing were possible.  All work is influenced by other work. All people are influenced by other people.  No man is an island and no piece of art is a continent unto itself." pg. 174


 

Homework
"Recovering a Sense of Strength, Compassion, Protection"

1.AFFIRMATIONS: (pg. 145-146)
Choose 3-5 Affirmations to work with this week.  Write them, post them.  Let us know which ones you will work with in our Gaggle Group.

2 .BRING TO CLASS: An ARTIST TOTEM. TASK #4 IN COMPASSION.  This might be a doll, a stuffed animal, a carved figuring, or a wind-up toy. The point is to choose something you immediately feel a protective fondness toward.  pg. 161

3. Touchstones: Make a quick list of things you love, happiness touchstones for you.  TASK #2 in Protection pg. 175

4. IN CLASS: The Awful Truth TASK #3 in Protection pg. 176

 

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