The facts, Ma'am - Just the facts

The fact is, this past week, I didn't even finish reading the chapter. I got to the word "sport" and put the book aside, and forgot to pick it back up again. Now I haven't done the tasks yet either, and they are a good bunch of tasks, so I'm slipping behind, and perhaps it's a way of extending the 12 weeks, eking out another few days from the program? Or perhaps it's just laziness, or distraction... take your pick.

But, and it is a big BUT, I have done my pages 7/7, and I did have an Artist Date, so all is not lost. There's an interesting thing about the pages, which emerged this morning, which is technically in week 12, but at this stage, who's counting? Background: When I decided to start the Artist's Way this time, part of my thinking (rationalisation) was that it would provide a nice complement or counterpoint to the heavy brain-work I would be undertaking in completing my Psychology degree. There's a thesis under way. There is research (ostensibly) being done. And at this stage there is a deadline looming, and not really a lot done. I ran into data-collection difficulties. It's slower than it should be. And I procrastinated about going to my supervisor, I put it on the long finger, hoping the data-Angel would turn up magically one day with a whole lot of just what I need, and it didn't happen, so the situation was becoming quite anxiety-provoking. (Still with me?) During the past two weeks, my morning pages would contain quite a lot of stuff like Oh my God! What am I going to do? This is terrible. My stomach is knotted up over this inaction. So act. Do something. Make the calls you need to make. Yes. I will make those calls. And this is going to be ok.Yes. Ok. I'm fine. My belly isn't full of bees any more. I'm fine. It's going to get done..... And the next morning, with not much progress made, I'd repeat a variation on the same thing... until this morning, when I picked up my pen, used a lot of foul language and berated myself for going through this charade, because it's useless to promise to do what isn't actually going to solve my data-collection problem.. because the problem really is... . I wrote on and on... and a miraculous, creative, right-brain solution just appeared on the page. Details are irrelevant. The point is, just when I gave in to just writing anything at all, just let myself flow instead of doing what I thought I should be doing (telling myself off for what I wasn't doing, and fobbing myself off with promises), the solution came out. I know right now what direction I can take, and I know it will work! I feel so good about that, I can tell you!

So that is one good reason for me to continue to do Morning Pages for ever and a day. They do something good for me.

The Artist Date involved shopping for my artist child again, but this time, I've been using what I got, so that's fine. Had an outing to Derry, and shopped in the Early Learning Centre for modelling clay, beads, and craft-type flowers to decorate my Precious Object poster, and because one of my favourite things in the world is bubbles, I couldn't resist a bubble-gun. It blows hundreds of bubbles at super-fast speed, so you stand surrounded in cloud of drifting, popping, beautiful bubbles. Hurrah! I let my grown-up have some fun too, and bought a couple of books I've been hearing mentioned - Blink and The Four Agreements, and I stopped on the journey home to take a few photographs - See the post on Spring below.

That's not really a check-in in the sense of the tradition I've established, but it's a catch-up until later, at which time I will have whizzed through the remainder of chapter 11, done the tasks, and will be able to report further insights, wisdom, and all that good stuff! Til later...