Secret 2 in the 12 Secrets…”Honoring Your Inspirations”…

This chapter is about paying attention and taking the time to allow your creative self to come out and play…it’s about listening to your thoughts, keeping a journal, creating a place for yourself - a sanctuary - and then taking the time to be there with your thoughts and inspirations – paying attention to where your inspirations come from…

I like what Alice Aspen March says: “Time is absolutely vital to the creative process. We have to figure out how to take it and how to give it to ourselves. Only when we realize the kind of attention we need to be creative, do we realize the value of our own time.” – this is something that I have struggled with…it goes back to that feeling guilty about taking time for myself…I’m getting better though – it is something that I have been consciously working on.

I have a sanctuary, or the beginnings of one…I have a whole room – in what used to be the kitchen in the upstairs apartment of the duplex we bought. I even have a sink and running water (something I didn’t have at our last place). I admit that it is a work in progress.

I am able to work amid chaos – which is a good thing, for my life seems to be full of it! It can also be a bad thing, though, because I tend to tune it out and just work away in my little bubble! I think that one of my ‘challenges’ this year should be to lessen some of that chaos. I am a horrible housekeeper and probably always will be…and it isn’t that which I want to change about myself…but to be a bit more organized and lessen the chaos of household mess would be a good thing for all of us who live here (not that it is all MY mess! – we still have elder daughter and her beau’s ‘stuff’ throughout the house and I am only one of three who live here). I guess the main problem is, that this place is much smaller than where we were before and I have trouble shedding myself of things…something to work on…

Another thing that this chapter talks about is creative rituals…as well as being a terrible housekeeper, I am not is a very regulated person…I never know, from one day to the next, exactly what I will be doing…I may know a day or two in advance of upcoming computer jobs, and I do schedule doctor and dentist appointments, but as for getting up at the same time every day and meditating or writing in a journal…no…I can’t seem to manage that! When Cariño and I were doing “The Artist’s Way” a few years ago, I did make a real effort to do the ‘Morning Papers’ – writing every morning…and it was good, but it didn’t seem to be something that I could fit into my life as a daily ritual…

Every so often I will clear my art table…but inevitably, as I work away, it fills up again…and soon I am back down to my little space of work area, surrounded by my creative tools and materials…it is a constant ebb and flow…that seems to be how I work…so I’ll just go with that…I seem to be on a creative high right now…more ideas popping into my head than I have time to record…so something must be working…I think the most important thing, for me, is the taking of time…the allowing myself to come up to my studio and spend time creating…and maybe that involves having some faith in myself…