This was a tough week, but I managed to tick off a few of the tasks I set for myself.
First, the book suggests that I review the habits which “interfere with self-nurturing and cause shame.” I was supposed to list 3 obvious and 3 more subtle rotten habits. I don’t love the word “rotten” because I think there’s often a good reason that our “bad” habits persist. But there are certainly some small, self-defeating habits which would benefit my creativity if I managed to change them. In particular, I’d like to prioritise more deep, focused creative work rather than checking the news six times an hour! Anything that I can scroll or refresh feels like a bad habit TBH.
I made a list of the people who nurture me, which was a fun exercise. It included my partner, Martino (our cat!), close friends, my siblings, and people in this community who show up to cheer me on each week!
I also made a list of people I admire which I won’t share, but I found it fascinating to look at the traits they have in common. I really admire women with a sense of self-ownership/self-possession, who seem embodied and who prioritise feeling good. They don’t delay or postpone joy, but embrace it now! I’d love to embrace those qualities more in my life.
Oh LOVED the last part about admiring women who embrace joy and shine as themselves! It's so beautiful! I'm definitely in the same boat that I want to be like that🩷
The Lego heart is wonderful. I'm realizing I'm not in the best place to be revisiting The Artist's Way at this moment. Maybe eventually. I loved The Artist's Way, and I do my artist dates all the time. But there's too much pulling my attention now to attend to it in any kind of systematic way. On the brighter side, I am in a very reflective and creative period anyway!
It sounds like you've got a strong intuitive sense of what makes sense for you right now Eva. I think it makes a lot of sense to trust that 💕 I'm so glad that The Artist's Way process was useful for you, and that you've managed to keep artist's dates as a meaningful part of your life. Morning Pages are central to my life, but I've been less successful at integrating Artist's Dates. I'm trying to change that this time!
Thanks for your kind words about my Lego too. I am very proud of it!
Clare and community, how interesting Clare you've had an ear infection, as I have had one, too, that required an ER visit and antibiotic prescription and is now healing. Curious about the mind-body-energy connection, I asked my myofascial release/yoga therapist for her thoughts and she ventured: "Also, the ear infection can be related to everything being out of alignment... perhaps you've been over-tuned into listening to the outer world and need to listen to your inner world. Infection can also be a sign of needing to grieve someone or something outside of you more. All congestion-type upper respiratory issues are related to needing to spend more time consciously grieving." In her teachings about our energy system, right side is outer world, our masculine "doing" side, and left side is feminine, inner world, "feeling" side. Worth contemplating in this Week 3 of Recovering Our Power. I skipped morning pages 3 days in a row because I was using my morning journaling time (and pages) to take copious notes of a very thought provoking webinar with the poet and wise advisor Mark Nepo but then got right back the regular programming of the morning pages. I went on a small Artist's Date yesterday, going to my local "papeteria," stationery store here in Barcelona and picking out some new pens and looking at all the beautiful journals that might be my next volume of morning pages as I near the end of the current notebook. Don't you love a new pen? Tomorrow if the rain in Barcelona this week ever ends I will take a walk down to the beach and look at the sea awhile, as another little date with my artist self. I've not done any of this week's tasks yet either. Not sure why there is resistance to that since part of my motivation of doing the Artists Way again now was to explore the richness of those tasks. I even put time in my Ical labeled "Artist Way tasks" but managed to skip over it anyway so far this week. Maybe because there is resistance in me as someone who generally always does all the tasks, ticks the boxes, does her to-do list. Perhaps I need another name than "task" or "exercise" which can be killjoy words. I'll go easy on myself and pick just one--either the one I most resist or the one that feels like the most fun. Feel better, Clare!
Hi Amy, sorry for my slow response on this one. I hope your ear is feeling better. I've had the joy of being able to sleep on both sides of my head this week, which felt like a treat. I'm grateful to be fully recovered.
I'm always curious about the mind/body connection. A few years ago, I was battling a sore throat that never seemed to clear. It was only when my then-therapist drew a connection between loosing my voice and feeling unable to speak that it started to slowly improve. I've never forgotten that experience, and how blatantly it illustrated the link between our minds and our bodies.
It sounds like the Mark Nepo webinar was nourishing in a different way. I hope you enjoyed it, and would love to hear about any insights you gleaned from it.
It sounds like a beautiful Artist's Date too. I *love* a stationery store and a new pen (or 20!) 😉 There are always weeks when Artist Way tasks feel like more of a drag than others. In my experience, it's less about the tasks themselves and more about how much capacity I have in my body at that moment. Perhaps it's evidence of your body's wisdom that it focused on healing your ear infection while gently guiding you away from anything that felt too much like a job. I dunno, but I do think there's as much to be gleaned from what we don't do, as the things we do complete.
I hope that you are back to full health my friend. I'm so grateful for your companionship through this process 💕
That line "when your body suffers, your creative life often does to." is such a helpful reminder, and an even better reason to mix in some more somatic artist's dates to give our bodies some extra love! Thank you for the mention 🫶
Thanks Kaitlyn. I am feeling better, though I think my body needs a bit more R&R. It's been a busy time, and I'm grateful to created a little more space in my life this week. As you say, my body needs a little extra love and I'm hoping to be able to prioritise that this week 💕
I haven't done morning pages or tasks yet (although I kind of did the list of people I admire in my head). For the artist date, I bought a ticket for an LA show that was streamed - yay technology and accessibility! I was a lot of fun.
Most of these first chapters feel so fresh in my mind, and I've been so busy, so I'm not sweating it, although I hope to dive in a bit more seriously during the catch up week.
Like you've mentioned, Clare, there are things in there that don't quite work. The idea of jumping and believing the net will appear is lovely for people who have a support system or some financial means. I find these ideas, presented without nuance, incredibly irresponsible. I really appreciated your post this week, Clare, and I think it's really a balance to find between being strategic and intuitive. For sure, overplanning can be a trap. But all the hard work of doing research, etc is also what can allow more creative freedom, or give that extra luck that leads to synchronicity. Once again, it's just a bit more nuanced.
The assumptions she makes about anger make me laugh, too. It's very middle class white woman - much like all the assumptions that her readers are people pleaser, etc. No, Julia, I am actually very comfortable with anger. Feeling it, expressing it, all of it. It's not a problem, not everything needs to work for everyone, but it did make me wonder what else might be missing that she just couldn't see (although last year I talked about some of this when I wrote about community versus how individualist her belief system is). (https://rhymeswithgenre.substack.com/p/decolonize-my-panties)
Shame hit a bit harder, and I think the last time around I avoided going too deep into that, so that's definitely a sign I need to dig deeper. I've been working on it, but it's a big project.
Ooof, shame is indeed a big project. I'm not sure if it's the fact that I've been ill recently or that his past Winter has been so tough, but I'm not sure I have the capacity for that big project right now. Maybe I'm in a "just live, don't analyse" kind of moment? I dunno.
I loved that post you wrote last year which I just re-read. The line about wanting to love others and have them love me/you resonated a lot. All the -isms are useful tools for analyses our society, but sometimes they can get in the way of just walking through life together, you know? It's also possible that I'm just too tired to be writing this, and ought to be staring at the ceiling instead :)
Thanks for your kind words about the newsletter Albe. It's a funny position to be in where I'm both recommending this process and also simultaneously critiquing the book, and I never want it to feel muddled/incoherent. But perhaps there is some creative tension in the mix of resistence and appreciation I have for the book and that might be useful to explore/use as fuel.
For what it's worth, I don't think recommending the process while exercising critical thinking is incoherent. It's a sign of maturity, and that you trust yourself enough to be able to engage with a piece of work in a nuanced way.
The Artist’s Way is an exercise in observation, questioning and reflection. Whenever I come up against something she’s written, I step back and think, why me, why this, why here now? What do I need to go deeper within and explore? I attempt to invite expansiveness. It’s not about whether I agree or disagree with Cameron but where her thoughts, words and suggestions propel me. That is creation, that is art, that is becoming from within. It’s partly “take what works for you and leave the rest” but through joyful, patient, thoughtful, gentle processing and reflection.
One word that I reflected on was God; the word made me squirm at first. Instead of immediately dismissing it, I chose to use my morning pages to work through it. The wild thing is, I didn’t have to read what I’d written, I just had to write for my brain to untwist itself. The feeling I’d experienced had nothing to do with Cameron or The Artist’s Way but provided an opportunity to reflect deeply upon myself.
Week 3 touched on some heavy topics for me. I tend to push my anger down because I don’t want to risk exploding or, as Cameron says, act out because of it. While I know about using it as a catalyst it wasn’t until reading chapter 3 again and absorbed what Cameron said about anger signaling “the death of our old life” as it also “propels us into our new one.” I’ve been afraid that anger is a master rather than a tool. Maybe it’s the climate of the world right now, but I was really struck when she wrote, “Sloth, apathy, and despair are the enemy. Anger is not.” I’ve shifted.
I’m like to find synchronicity in life. Fear of success, imposter syndrome – those are the kinds of things that can make us close our eyes to the synchronicity that is waiting for us. It’s the gift we don’t open.
I’d been toying with doing The Artist’s Way again because I hadn’t finished, but I kept feeling nudged to pick it up again. I made many excuses not to. And then, I saw a note from Rachel Macy Stafford mentioning Clare’s offer to get together with others, virtually, to work together. I was already aware of Clare from things Rachel had shared. And this, a group of like-minded people, was exactly what I’d been saying to myself I needed but didn’t have. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money and this was free. Formal structure and rules scared me, but as busy as I was that day, when I saw the note, the nudge became a push, and I clicked the link. It was absolutely everything I needed to proceed. It addressed every single excuse I had made for myself. So, I took a deep breath and said yes. I’m really glad I did. But if it hadn’t been for those little things all coming together at the right time, I’d still be sitting here wishing instead of doing.
When I look at my life there are so many examples of synchronicity that have propelled me along. That’s why this quote is still one of my favourites. “Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.” OVID
Cameron says “afterall, seeing is believing” and that I do take issue with. When it comes to serendipity and synchronicity, I think the opposite is quite true. Believe first, and then you will see. That’s how affirmations work, too. We begin to build the belief, and then we see the truths and build upon them.
Cameron’s thoughts on shame resonated with me. I have found myself working away at something and then as she says, “as they near completion, that the work seems mysteriously drained of merit. It’s no longer worth the trouble. To therapists, this surge of sudden disinterest (“It doesn’t matter”) is a routine coping device employed to deny pain and ward off vulnerability.” All I could do was nod my head.
I’m still reflecting on the shame part of the chapter, especially the sentences about criticism.
“The criticism that damages is that which disparages, dismisses, ridicules, or condemns. It is frequently vicious but vague and difficult to refute.”
“…learn where and when to seek out right criticism. At these times, we must be very firm with ourselves and not pick up the first doubt.”
“Useful criticism ultimately leaves us with one more puzzle piece for our work. Useless criticism… leaves us with a feeling of being bludgeoned.” This is something I need to be very careful about. I found her comparison to taking in the first doubt to an alcoholic picking up a first drink a bit of a wake-up moment.
“As a creative being, you will be more productive when coaxed than when bullied.”
I found the exercises about childhood very helpful. Reviewing traits and accomplishments was surprisingly empowering. Even reviewing my habits revealed more than I expected and has provided ways I can replenish more and deplete less.
All the tasks this week brought up new things for me to consider, and the exercises feel well worth the effort.
My artist’s date was a lot of fun, too. I went for a walk among the trees on one of our first really spring-like days. The snow was shrinking and melting as it does every spring, but for the first time, I noticed how the appearance and textures changed during the process. It reminded me of aging skin, wrinkles, crevices, dryness, a texture almost resembling crepe. It was another reminder that life is about cycles and seasons and how we change.
Thanks for sharing this Jewel. It's given me a lot of food for thought.
I'm glad that you're able to invite expansiveness despite whether or not you agree with Cameron. I haven't been able to do that yet, so I really appreciate you sharing that perspective with the community.
I also use Morning Pages to work through the things that I struggle with, as you say it helps my brain to "untwist itself". What a perfect description!
That passage you quoted on shame resonated deeply with me too. There was a lot of head nodding during chapter 3, to be honest!
It sounds like a beautiful, and very embodied artist's date too. What a rich experience you found in a a seemingly ordinary place. It's a lovely thing to embrace particularly as Spring begins to take root, and there's a sense of spaciousness about what lies ahead.
I'm so glad that you heeded the nudge toward doing The Artist's Way with us. I'm deeply grateful to Rachel for her help in spreading the word, and it's been great to be in community with you. I really appreciate you sharing your perspectives and experiences with us all 💕
This was a tough week, but I managed to tick off a few of the tasks I set for myself.
First, the book suggests that I review the habits which “interfere with self-nurturing and cause shame.” I was supposed to list 3 obvious and 3 more subtle rotten habits. I don’t love the word “rotten” because I think there’s often a good reason that our “bad” habits persist. But there are certainly some small, self-defeating habits which would benefit my creativity if I managed to change them. In particular, I’d like to prioritise more deep, focused creative work rather than checking the news six times an hour! Anything that I can scroll or refresh feels like a bad habit TBH.
I made a list of the people who nurture me, which was a fun exercise. It included my partner, Martino (our cat!), close friends, my siblings, and people in this community who show up to cheer me on each week!
I also made a list of people I admire which I won’t share, but I found it fascinating to look at the traits they have in common. I really admire women with a sense of self-ownership/self-possession, who seem embodied and who prioritise feeling good. They don’t delay or postpone joy, but embrace it now! I’d love to embrace those qualities more in my life.
Oh LOVED the last part about admiring women who embrace joy and shine as themselves! It's so beautiful! I'm definitely in the same boat that I want to be like that🩷
That's who I want to be when I "grow up" 😉 💕
The Lego heart is wonderful. I'm realizing I'm not in the best place to be revisiting The Artist's Way at this moment. Maybe eventually. I loved The Artist's Way, and I do my artist dates all the time. But there's too much pulling my attention now to attend to it in any kind of systematic way. On the brighter side, I am in a very reflective and creative period anyway!
It sounds like you've got a strong intuitive sense of what makes sense for you right now Eva. I think it makes a lot of sense to trust that 💕 I'm so glad that The Artist's Way process was useful for you, and that you've managed to keep artist's dates as a meaningful part of your life. Morning Pages are central to my life, but I've been less successful at integrating Artist's Dates. I'm trying to change that this time!
Thanks for your kind words about my Lego too. I am very proud of it!
Clare and community, how interesting Clare you've had an ear infection, as I have had one, too, that required an ER visit and antibiotic prescription and is now healing. Curious about the mind-body-energy connection, I asked my myofascial release/yoga therapist for her thoughts and she ventured: "Also, the ear infection can be related to everything being out of alignment... perhaps you've been over-tuned into listening to the outer world and need to listen to your inner world. Infection can also be a sign of needing to grieve someone or something outside of you more. All congestion-type upper respiratory issues are related to needing to spend more time consciously grieving." In her teachings about our energy system, right side is outer world, our masculine "doing" side, and left side is feminine, inner world, "feeling" side. Worth contemplating in this Week 3 of Recovering Our Power. I skipped morning pages 3 days in a row because I was using my morning journaling time (and pages) to take copious notes of a very thought provoking webinar with the poet and wise advisor Mark Nepo but then got right back the regular programming of the morning pages. I went on a small Artist's Date yesterday, going to my local "papeteria," stationery store here in Barcelona and picking out some new pens and looking at all the beautiful journals that might be my next volume of morning pages as I near the end of the current notebook. Don't you love a new pen? Tomorrow if the rain in Barcelona this week ever ends I will take a walk down to the beach and look at the sea awhile, as another little date with my artist self. I've not done any of this week's tasks yet either. Not sure why there is resistance to that since part of my motivation of doing the Artists Way again now was to explore the richness of those tasks. I even put time in my Ical labeled "Artist Way tasks" but managed to skip over it anyway so far this week. Maybe because there is resistance in me as someone who generally always does all the tasks, ticks the boxes, does her to-do list. Perhaps I need another name than "task" or "exercise" which can be killjoy words. I'll go easy on myself and pick just one--either the one I most resist or the one that feels like the most fun. Feel better, Clare!
Hi Amy, sorry for my slow response on this one. I hope your ear is feeling better. I've had the joy of being able to sleep on both sides of my head this week, which felt like a treat. I'm grateful to be fully recovered.
I'm always curious about the mind/body connection. A few years ago, I was battling a sore throat that never seemed to clear. It was only when my then-therapist drew a connection between loosing my voice and feeling unable to speak that it started to slowly improve. I've never forgotten that experience, and how blatantly it illustrated the link between our minds and our bodies.
It sounds like the Mark Nepo webinar was nourishing in a different way. I hope you enjoyed it, and would love to hear about any insights you gleaned from it.
It sounds like a beautiful Artist's Date too. I *love* a stationery store and a new pen (or 20!) 😉 There are always weeks when Artist Way tasks feel like more of a drag than others. In my experience, it's less about the tasks themselves and more about how much capacity I have in my body at that moment. Perhaps it's evidence of your body's wisdom that it focused on healing your ear infection while gently guiding you away from anything that felt too much like a job. I dunno, but I do think there's as much to be gleaned from what we don't do, as the things we do complete.
I hope that you are back to full health my friend. I'm so grateful for your companionship through this process 💕
That lego is lovely, Clare!!
I hope you're feeling better ❤️🩹
That line "when your body suffers, your creative life often does to." is such a helpful reminder, and an even better reason to mix in some more somatic artist's dates to give our bodies some extra love! Thank you for the mention 🫶
Thanks Kaitlyn. I am feeling better, though I think my body needs a bit more R&R. It's been a busy time, and I'm grateful to created a little more space in my life this week. As you say, my body needs a little extra love and I'm hoping to be able to prioritise that this week 💕
Sorry to hear you've been unwell, Clare! Ear aches are the worst :(
Thanks Adina. Feeling a lot better now 💕
P.S. I love your new profile pic. It's lovely to be able to see your face!
I haven't done morning pages or tasks yet (although I kind of did the list of people I admire in my head). For the artist date, I bought a ticket for an LA show that was streamed - yay technology and accessibility! I was a lot of fun.
Most of these first chapters feel so fresh in my mind, and I've been so busy, so I'm not sweating it, although I hope to dive in a bit more seriously during the catch up week.
Like you've mentioned, Clare, there are things in there that don't quite work. The idea of jumping and believing the net will appear is lovely for people who have a support system or some financial means. I find these ideas, presented without nuance, incredibly irresponsible. I really appreciated your post this week, Clare, and I think it's really a balance to find between being strategic and intuitive. For sure, overplanning can be a trap. But all the hard work of doing research, etc is also what can allow more creative freedom, or give that extra luck that leads to synchronicity. Once again, it's just a bit more nuanced.
The assumptions she makes about anger make me laugh, too. It's very middle class white woman - much like all the assumptions that her readers are people pleaser, etc. No, Julia, I am actually very comfortable with anger. Feeling it, expressing it, all of it. It's not a problem, not everything needs to work for everyone, but it did make me wonder what else might be missing that she just couldn't see (although last year I talked about some of this when I wrote about community versus how individualist her belief system is). (https://rhymeswithgenre.substack.com/p/decolonize-my-panties)
Shame hit a bit harder, and I think the last time around I avoided going too deep into that, so that's definitely a sign I need to dig deeper. I've been working on it, but it's a big project.
Ooof, shame is indeed a big project. I'm not sure if it's the fact that I've been ill recently or that his past Winter has been so tough, but I'm not sure I have the capacity for that big project right now. Maybe I'm in a "just live, don't analyse" kind of moment? I dunno.
I loved that post you wrote last year which I just re-read. The line about wanting to love others and have them love me/you resonated a lot. All the -isms are useful tools for analyses our society, but sometimes they can get in the way of just walking through life together, you know? It's also possible that I'm just too tired to be writing this, and ought to be staring at the ceiling instead :)
Thanks for your kind words about the newsletter Albe. It's a funny position to be in where I'm both recommending this process and also simultaneously critiquing the book, and I never want it to feel muddled/incoherent. But perhaps there is some creative tension in the mix of resistence and appreciation I have for the book and that might be useful to explore/use as fuel.
For what it's worth, I don't think recommending the process while exercising critical thinking is incoherent. It's a sign of maturity, and that you trust yourself enough to be able to engage with a piece of work in a nuanced way.
Thank you my friend. 💕
The Artist’s Way is an exercise in observation, questioning and reflection. Whenever I come up against something she’s written, I step back and think, why me, why this, why here now? What do I need to go deeper within and explore? I attempt to invite expansiveness. It’s not about whether I agree or disagree with Cameron but where her thoughts, words and suggestions propel me. That is creation, that is art, that is becoming from within. It’s partly “take what works for you and leave the rest” but through joyful, patient, thoughtful, gentle processing and reflection.
One word that I reflected on was God; the word made me squirm at first. Instead of immediately dismissing it, I chose to use my morning pages to work through it. The wild thing is, I didn’t have to read what I’d written, I just had to write for my brain to untwist itself. The feeling I’d experienced had nothing to do with Cameron or The Artist’s Way but provided an opportunity to reflect deeply upon myself.
Week 3 touched on some heavy topics for me. I tend to push my anger down because I don’t want to risk exploding or, as Cameron says, act out because of it. While I know about using it as a catalyst it wasn’t until reading chapter 3 again and absorbed what Cameron said about anger signaling “the death of our old life” as it also “propels us into our new one.” I’ve been afraid that anger is a master rather than a tool. Maybe it’s the climate of the world right now, but I was really struck when she wrote, “Sloth, apathy, and despair are the enemy. Anger is not.” I’ve shifted.
I’m like to find synchronicity in life. Fear of success, imposter syndrome – those are the kinds of things that can make us close our eyes to the synchronicity that is waiting for us. It’s the gift we don’t open.
I’d been toying with doing The Artist’s Way again because I hadn’t finished, but I kept feeling nudged to pick it up again. I made many excuses not to. And then, I saw a note from Rachel Macy Stafford mentioning Clare’s offer to get together with others, virtually, to work together. I was already aware of Clare from things Rachel had shared. And this, a group of like-minded people, was exactly what I’d been saying to myself I needed but didn’t have. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money and this was free. Formal structure and rules scared me, but as busy as I was that day, when I saw the note, the nudge became a push, and I clicked the link. It was absolutely everything I needed to proceed. It addressed every single excuse I had made for myself. So, I took a deep breath and said yes. I’m really glad I did. But if it hadn’t been for those little things all coming together at the right time, I’d still be sitting here wishing instead of doing.
When I look at my life there are so many examples of synchronicity that have propelled me along. That’s why this quote is still one of my favourites. “Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.” OVID
Cameron says “afterall, seeing is believing” and that I do take issue with. When it comes to serendipity and synchronicity, I think the opposite is quite true. Believe first, and then you will see. That’s how affirmations work, too. We begin to build the belief, and then we see the truths and build upon them.
Cameron’s thoughts on shame resonated with me. I have found myself working away at something and then as she says, “as they near completion, that the work seems mysteriously drained of merit. It’s no longer worth the trouble. To therapists, this surge of sudden disinterest (“It doesn’t matter”) is a routine coping device employed to deny pain and ward off vulnerability.” All I could do was nod my head.
I’m still reflecting on the shame part of the chapter, especially the sentences about criticism.
“The criticism that damages is that which disparages, dismisses, ridicules, or condemns. It is frequently vicious but vague and difficult to refute.”
“…learn where and when to seek out right criticism. At these times, we must be very firm with ourselves and not pick up the first doubt.”
“Useful criticism ultimately leaves us with one more puzzle piece for our work. Useless criticism… leaves us with a feeling of being bludgeoned.” This is something I need to be very careful about. I found her comparison to taking in the first doubt to an alcoholic picking up a first drink a bit of a wake-up moment.
“As a creative being, you will be more productive when coaxed than when bullied.”
I found the exercises about childhood very helpful. Reviewing traits and accomplishments was surprisingly empowering. Even reviewing my habits revealed more than I expected and has provided ways I can replenish more and deplete less.
All the tasks this week brought up new things for me to consider, and the exercises feel well worth the effort.
My artist’s date was a lot of fun, too. I went for a walk among the trees on one of our first really spring-like days. The snow was shrinking and melting as it does every spring, but for the first time, I noticed how the appearance and textures changed during the process. It reminded me of aging skin, wrinkles, crevices, dryness, a texture almost resembling crepe. It was another reminder that life is about cycles and seasons and how we change.
Thanks for sharing this Jewel. It's given me a lot of food for thought.
I'm glad that you're able to invite expansiveness despite whether or not you agree with Cameron. I haven't been able to do that yet, so I really appreciate you sharing that perspective with the community.
I also use Morning Pages to work through the things that I struggle with, as you say it helps my brain to "untwist itself". What a perfect description!
That passage you quoted on shame resonated deeply with me too. There was a lot of head nodding during chapter 3, to be honest!
It sounds like a beautiful, and very embodied artist's date too. What a rich experience you found in a a seemingly ordinary place. It's a lovely thing to embrace particularly as Spring begins to take root, and there's a sense of spaciousness about what lies ahead.
I'm so glad that you heeded the nudge toward doing The Artist's Way with us. I'm deeply grateful to Rachel for her help in spreading the word, and it's been great to be in community with you. I really appreciate you sharing your perspectives and experiences with us all 💕
Thank you for your kind words and the perspective you share. I really appreciate it
Thank you Jewel. I'm so grateful to be in community with you 💕