Our gorgeous fragility is nothing to be ashamed of … so let’s let ourselves off the hook for somehow being magically better. Somehow you found possibility inside this life of yours. [That] looks a lot of wholeness to me.
Kate Bowler
This week I am reading “Inviting Stamina,” the fifth chapter of Living The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron — offering inspiration for a new season of my living.
I have been listening to Kate Bowler’s podcasts and this one resonated on several different levels for me. Her primary focus that “everything happens” (without reasons or fault) is refreshingly healing. ❤️🩹
A lack of light (literally and figuratively) can lead to despair (an overwhelming belief that our existing options will not offer what we need and desire).
- But sometimes, we can reset and reframe and hold space while waiting for our existing options to offer what we need and desire — and become curious and devoted to finding the light.
Even though you then have to wait to see your picture before you can appreciate it fully, the moment is already preserved…it’s already becoming something real and worth holding onto.
Morgan Harper Nichols
As we wait for existing options to ground and manifest, we can chronicle the time in-between. Doing so reminds us what we can “control” and be renewed by (and this creates its own form of light).
A friend’s post inspired me to deem my daily routines and chronicles as “proof of life.” The bits of activity and being within my day that facilitate walking through [it].
- early morning reading, writing and right brain planning 📚
- being outdoors during 🌄 dawn’s first light
- enjoying how the birds fly from tree to tree in my backyard
- watering my 🪴 patio gardens
- walkabouts with my 🐾 grrl
- naps in ☀️ sun via my red ❤️ sunning chair
- sipping a cold 🥤 drink while rocking 🤍 in my new outdoor rocking chair
- drive-thru lunch dates with my partner 💙
- time with kindred friends ☕ discussing books and creativity
Writing prompts from “Inviting Stamina” pp. 122-123 (the fifth chapter of Living The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron):
Fill in the following:
- An area in my life where I have no control is …
- I wish that …
- I am afraid that …
Now, write out the following questions and listen for guidance. What do you hear?
- How can I accept my lack of control?
- How can I turn this situation over to a higher power?
- What action can I take?
Braveheart, when we are open to Divine guidance it is always received.
And any day can be Day One 1️⃣ dear Braveheart. 🎈 Yesterday I added notes to my annual review notes as part of my [journaling for guidance] practice.
- This led to printing this template and filling in the space with what I have control over (and what I don’t have control over).
- Interestingly enough, the section I read later from Living the Artist’s Way was entitled “Surrendering Control.” 😊 (!)
“Because I do have a life. And right now more than anything in the world I want to use the extra moments of my life to sit outside and read books, watch my garden grow, sip a drink and let the secret messages pour forth from a cracked book, planting seeds to grow new life within me. I want to be visited by the rays of light that beam magical phrase off of the pages straight into my heart…” (Mandy Steward).
- My life is shifting and I am celebrating my life as it is right now.
- This is one of my current grounding statements amidst these major shifts; as the mundane and magnificent and sorrow-full 🌀 swirl all around, I set my mind to seek beauty and expand — breath-by-breath. ☮️
Creative scaffolding (designated time and sequence) enables me the comfort of a starting point and structure in this space I share my process and practice with you, dear Braveheart.
- My current writing goal: 150-ish (or less) words daily as free-writing, compiling notes from my self-directed studies and chronicling ideas from (and for) my creative work. 💖 Sometimes compiled here and published, sometimes not.
These compilations allow me to document, discern and ponder my living along amidst the ever-changing details of certainty, uncertainty and random challenges mingled with the details of daily minutia and my story-unfolding. 🔮
