Week 3 check-in

I think I said last week, and the same holds true this week, I don't think I could put the entire check-in on here, rather I'll just comment on some of the things I've noticed during the week (if I haven't already posted on them.

• One thing was that exercise for the scientific-minded. You know... the list of clothes you want. Write it out, sit back and wait for the Universe to provide. Well, I did that last time, and my thoughts when I got here went something as follows: Yeah, right, well, that doesn't work, does it? I tried it. Nothing came along. ... OK, I didn't really make a list of things I really wanted. Purple dungarees and a gold jacket (oh... I did actually get a gold velvet jacket a year or so later!) But what I didn't do at the time was to clear any space for these new things. .... Aha! - I think this will appear in Chapter 4 too. I have something to keep me busy next week. Decluttering my wardrobe, and my bedroom, prompted by the task on the Childhood room. - The thing I loved about that room was all the floorspace it had. My present room could have too, if I remove the junk!
• Maybe I keep harking back to when I last did AW, but this is just bringing up things, and I can't help making connections with happenings and insights from that time that are shedding new light on the experience now, and vice versa. What's happening now is helping me understand my experience last time. Anyone confused yet?
• An affirmation. One of my imaginary lives last time (1998) was Bach Flower Remedy Practitioner. Of course it didn't become a conscious Goal or anything immediately, but it must have stayed in my subconscious, and when I began training in 2003 I didn't associate it with Artist's Way at all. When did I get the letter confirming that I've successfully completed my training to be registered as a certified practitioner? 9th January, 2 days after beginning the AW this time! Synchronicity strikes again!
• Habits. Ok. Rotten ones? Over-eating (periodically), coffee-drinking, Over-indulging in PC (especially games --- aaagh! Hate admitting that) Payoff? Giving myself (eating & coffee) something to feel sorry for myself for: I've been so stressed I over-ate and drank too much coffee!. PC is a pure procrastination/escape tool. Payoff is I can ignore (I can't, but I do) what I really need to be doing. While blog-surfing is far more useful, connected and creativity-building, it is also addictive. So, if those are the rotten habits, what are the subtle foes? Putting off self-care activities like prayer and exercise, and allowing my home to get messy and disorganised so it's hard to do anything. (this isn't anywhere near the problem it used to be. I actually have desk-space, clear space in my kitchen... way improved... but plenty of room still to improve.) In my journal, I say... The general effect is to leave me blocked, lethargic, guilty, bogged down physically, spiritually and domestically. It all adds weight to be carried, prevents me from moving easily through life, or pursuing creative activities.
• Because I read Chapter 4 tonight after I'd completed my tasks and done the check-in, here's another thing I noticed: The task about people I admire/secretly admire, would like to meet/hang out with... when I reviewed the traits of who I admire, Integrity came out top (title of chapter 4 turns out to be... Recovering a sense of Integrity!) But the people I secretly admired (much as I would like to be considered a person of integrity, these are much more fun) - Outspokenness, Outrageousness, Individuality, Creativity, Fun, Willingness to change/ reinvent the self, Fearlessness, Ability to completely ignore critics and detractors. Can I have both? - Or all?
• My Artist Date was one of those Declared After the Event dates too! - I did a Stationery-shop crawl (went to 3) and got some card-making materials - ribbon, beautiful leaf skeletons in gold, to add to the accumulation of cards and other decorative stuff I've been buying over the past year. I've never yet made a card! (Something else to occupy me next week). When I came home, there was a catalogue in the post. I don't often bother with them, but there, ridiculously cheap, was a set of 8 scissors for cutting lacy edges onto paper. OK. Ordered. End of date. My supplies are in. It was satisfying, but not as exciting somehow as last week (I think it's in the intention, in fact)

That's a smattering of what was in my long, long journal entry for check-in. It was a good week. A feeling of being in the flow. I'm totally enjoying visiting people's blogs, and thinking "I was wondering about that, or I noticed that, or I was just saying that" but more often thinking "Wow!" The term isn't used as much in Europe as in US, but this group is Awesome. I stand in awe of all of you.

Oh.... I said this on my other blog, too... I intend to remain Incommunicado during Reading Deprivation Week. If I do turn up here, looking for company, will some kind soul turn me around and send me home, and tell me to behave myself? I will miss you all, but really, really look forward to catching up next week. Enjoy the week, my friends.