Sunday Night Reflections

The Artist Way
Week 2

So how was your week? It has been a rather busy week for me. We hosted a family that included three young boys. Finding a quiet place for myself was a bit challenging at times. One day I ended up in the bathroom only to have my husband knock on the door and ask if I was alright since I had been in so long. He then saw that I was writing and understood.
I said last week that this journey is turning out to be quite different from my last two experiences, much more of a spiritual journey. I'm realizing areas of my life that I would like to work on, things that I don't want to take into the second half of my life.
This week the chapter was about recovering a sense of identity. Who are we, what do we want from this life? We all long to feel that we have a place in this world, that we matter. All too often I know I have compromised what I want in order to appease another person. Two quotations that stood out to me this week are, "to know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive." The other quotation is, "every time you don't follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness." Sadly, I have known this all too often. The author of the Artist's Way, Julia Cameron says, "we focus not on the responsibilities to ourselves, but on our responsibilities to others. We tend to think such behavior makes us good people. It doesn't." This is something I have struggled with this week. Where do I draw the line? As children, one of the first words we learn to say is no, but for some reason as we grow older it becomes one of the most difficult words to say and so we compromise what we want in order to not hurt another person. The person we end up hurting though is ourselves. Realizing that my dreams, my goals are not only important to me, but are God given is all the more reason why I need put aside the feeling that I should always put myself second, or even last.

This upcoming week we will be recovering a sense of power. We will learn that anger is a powerful tool. Anger is not the action itself. It is action's invitation.
If you are working along with me, please continue to do your morning pages and by all means keep your artist date. The date does not have to be something huge. This week I gave myself a much needed pedicure. It was time I had alone and it was a way of saying that something that makes a part of my body feel so good is important to me. Read chapter three and try and do at least half of the tasks at the end of the chapter.
Remember, this is not about succeeding or failing. If you have decided to just follow me, that is fine. I hope that in time my journey will fuel yours.
Wishing you a wonderful week.