I’m Baa-ack

At least for today. And look! The falling snow is back, too!

Thanksgiving was a whirlwind of activity for me. Our son and daughter-in-law came to visit, we had a fine time. We got a new bed for them, which was delivered the very day they arrived. Next morning they and my husband ran in the annual Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot cross country race while  I cooked turkey. We ate, cleaned up, played a board game, walked the dog, visited, worked on cars, on scrapbooking, ate more, walked the dog some more… all over the course of the three days they were here.

Anyway, I haven’t done anything with The Other Side of the Sky now for almost a week, though I was really starting to get on a roll before the holiday. Instead of 1 hour a day, I decided to do two hours a day where I just made myself go into the office and if nothing else, sit there listening to music.

Then I put on my bulletin board above my desks my Rules of the Road, gleaned and amended/adapted from The Artist’s Way (I’m currently on Week 8 and haven’t missed a day of morning pages, though some of them were not the full three pages; I’ve even managed a couple more artist dates):

RULES OF THE ROAD

 In order to be an artist, I must:

  1. REBOUND!
  2. Show up at the page. Use the page to rest, to dream, to try.
  3. Fill the well by caring for my artist.
  4. Set small and gentle goals and meet them.
  5. Pray for guidance, courage and humility.
  6. Remember that it is far harder and more painful to be a blocked artist than it is to do the work
  7. Be alert, always for the presence of God leading and helping my artist.
  8. Never abuse my artist by judging harshly my initial creative forays into a work. It is insane to measure the baby I’m giving birth to against a full-grown adult.
  9. Remember that my Father loves me and has promised to provide everything I need to do the work HE has called me to do.
  10. Remember that it is my job to DO the work, not judge the work!

Father, I will take care of the quantity and I will trust You to take care of the quality.

 These have been very helpful. Especially the “Set small and gentle goals” rule. If my goal is “read through yesterday’s pages” that works. But occasionally I forget and give myself a goal of “finish working through the plotline for chapters 1-4”.  Then I wonder why I don’t want to go in to the office, and why when I do go in, I can’t get anywhere… because I did not set a small and gentle goal I knew I could meet.

Anyway, I’ve also added a sort of progress bar to my side bar. It’s just a note, really, because my blog template apparently doesn’t support progress bar types of widgets (well, it accepted the thing, but showed me already done. A wonderful image, which perhaps I should keep. We could call it “My Progress in God’s eyes”:  already complete!

However, ahem, that wasn’t really what I had in mind here. Anyway, it’s up there right under the search box. I’m hoping to update it on the days that I work.

2 thoughts on “I’m Baa-ack

  1. Tamara

    I love the snow! How did you do that?

    And I love the Road Rules. I just participated in NaNoWriMo and told myself a lot of things like that to get through it! Pep talks (aka personal reminders of truth) can be very helpful!

    Reply

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