Last week, VV (of 100 Words fame) challenged me to take part in a 12 week challenge – using the book The Artist’s Way. Oh, okay – she didn’t challenge ME personally, but I took it personally.

I am now into week 2. Each week I will be “checking in” to see how the previous week went.

Each morning I write “Morning Pages” – three handwritten pages that are mostly unstructured. I was able to do that 6 of the 7 days. The first three were not handwritten, btw. I did tem on the computer because my ordered supplies, which included the Artist’s Way journal – had not yet arrived. The thought was there, if not the way to do it.

Having completed the week – and started this week by handwriting the pages I can see the value. Writing by hand makes me stop and think about what I am writing. When I type I can do it without thinking and much more quickly. Aha!

I’m also supposed to have an Artist’s Date with myself. Okay, I didn’t do so great on this one. Rather than SET A DATE and keep it, I just took that part loosely and as such didn’t really have a special time for me.

I did sit alongside the road and watch the cranes for a bit – that was relaxing and good – and I got a couple of pictures. But I’m not sure it was really all in the spirit of the thing.

Work tends to get in the way of a lot of this – those things I “have” to do.

So much of my life is taken up by my work – and I noticed that a lot of what I am doing/reading during this exercise parallels what I do in my work in the domestic violence field.

Talking about “crazy-making” for instance. And why it is easier to stay with a crazy-maker than it is to move on. The women who come through our shelter have experienced those same things.

Paralells – no wonder I write about the things I do.

Yeah – that!