I’m back!

Over the course of our vacation, which started with a family trip to Powell’s in Portland, I managed to read a few books. This week I’m going to review a few of these books, starting with The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.

Before leaving on vacation it was suggested to me that one really useful book to help me through my creative block/slump might be The Artist’s Way.  I had read this book many years ago and although I enjoyed it, it didn’t “speak” to me at the time.  But it hasn’t been around this long because no one finds it useful so I decided to pick it up again and give it another try.

Reading through the beginning chapters I can see why my friend recommended it to me.  It is exactly what I need right now.  It’s funny how that happens.  The descriptive title says it all, “discovering and recovering your creative self”.  The first chapter, and the idea of shadow artists resonated with me and certain sections even brought me to tears.  This is probably a good thing and again why my friend knew that this was the right time for me to work through this book.

The book is very focused on the belief that there is a higher power.  Although the author stresses that if this doesn’t flow with your personal beliefs to just overlook this aspect of the book.  This is pretty hard to overlook though so I do find I struggle with those sections of the book that stress this.

I’m still not convinced that the morning pages will work for me or that I’ll actually manage to do them everyday.  For starter’s, the kids are up earlier than I am on school mornings (they’ve usually eaten their breakfast and made their lunches before I roll out of bed – and yes, I’m bragging).  I’m going to try to do the pages right after I drop them off at school, either at a coffee shop or a park, depending on the weather.  Hmm, it would seem I am already making excuses and perhaps putting up my own road blocks.  Never mind.  I’ll do my morning pages.  Wish me luck,