Appreciating the process...

I would like to print another addendum to my post regarding the necessity of allowing your artistic "Source" to flow through you in order to create, no matter what the intended product may be. This process of "allowing" is not as passive as I may have made it sound. In order for this creativity to be able to flow within you, a hospitable environment must be established. And, I am just now learning what this process is.

In my day's reading of Coaching the Artist Within, I discovered something I already knew. The chapter was about "goal-oriented process". It basically lays bare our ridiculous expectations about creating and applies them to other activities just to be sure we understand how ridiculous we are being. For instance, when dealing with writer's block, many author's become frustrated and even angry that they have to deal with it. Maisel scoffs at this reaction by pointing out that, although we may think it in the back of our heads, there are no writers out there who just sit down and have the perfect words flow off their pen at will. This is not how it happens. Likewise, you cannot just plant a garden and sit back and watch it grow. You must water it and weed it, etc. He further says that we need to accept this blockage as a part of the creative process instead of becoming resigned and giving up.

I relate this to something I mentioned in another post, "accepting what is..."- the idea of accepting the good and the bad, the pretty and the ugly. Instead of insisting upon this world where creating should be easy and just happen when we want it to, we (and by this I mean me) need to accept that in this world creating comes with pitfalls. Hence, my occasional ;) boring posts or crappy photos. The trick is to 1, accept that these will happen, and 2, do your best to be goal-oriented, so you just keep truckin'. Nobody got anywhere by just sitting waiting for something to happen. If you want to go to the store, you gotta get in the car. So, if I want to write a book, I gotta set aside time to devote to it- whether or not I actually make any progress. I gotta stop telling myself that I can't do it. I gotta stop making excuses. So, this weekend I actually started my research, and this Tuesday morning is day 1 of the writing process. Let's see if I stick to it (fingers crossed)!



My goal with today's shoot was to get a new look at the old things I see everyday, which was my initial purpose when I started this blog. I wanted to get shots from new and interesting angles. I took these while my husband was finishing up work on our new bushes in the front yard. And, I figured since I did a backyard collage, my front yard deserved some representin'. These were alot of fun to take, too. I've wanted to shoot the fire hydrant for a while; for some reason, it's really cool to me. I've tried to get that shot of the roof before but never caught one I liked. And, the flower was fun cus I got to lay in the dirt (and an ant pile) to get all up under it. And, I'm really happy with how they all turned out!