Saturday 3 March 2012

Walking in this World—Week 1, Day 6

Last night Debbie, Mandi and I had a great first creative cluster check in for Week 1. Despite upgrading Skype to the Premium version to try out group video calling, technology failed us once again (I'll be on to you today Skype)—but still, we got to see each other briefly and exchange a few smiley waves before embarking on a standard call to chat through our weeks.

It was interesting listening to the girls talk; we all had very different experiences of completing the tasks, but there were similar universal themes running through them. We had a bit of fun with the ‘express yourself’ task and listed our positive adjectives to describe ourselves, while the ‘do nothing’ task was initially one to put off but indulge in later. As we talked I realised that walking has become a big part of my life; it might not seem like such an exciting artistic endeavour, but my daily rambles seem to instil me with calm and give me space to think things through. As a result I don't feel as stressed as I once did.

Week 1 Discovering a Sense of Origin felt like more of a gentle introduction compared to The Artist's Way with very minimal tasks; looking ahead as we move into Week 2 Discovering a Sense of Proportion there appears to be a bit more writing and challenge ahead of us.

Before we chatted I had spent a rare night at home. I had planned to spend Friday evening having my Aritst's Date in the city, but with so many deadlines and commitments this coming week felt I was being a bit indulgent with my time. I didn't cancel completely; instead I preserved the hour I had blocked off, headed home and played one of my favourite albums while cooking one of my favourite meals from scratch—wok-fried chicken and mushroom korma with homemade Peshwari naan. It might not look terribly photogenic, but it was exceptionally tasty if I do say so myself! I lit candles and enjoyed having a full 60 minute window of time all to myself. After February being such a hectic month I'm enjoying getting back in the habit of preparing meals from scratch—it is a creative and calming process in its own right.

Despite this being the weekend, today is a day of work for me, and I expect Sunday will be too. I need to break the back of the play I've been procrastinating on and try to solve once and for all what it is that isn't working. I know there are chunks of good material in there, but for some reason I've not managed to make it all connect so far. I've also been on a bit of a decluttering mission and have eight bags of clothes that no longer fit to take to the charity drop off later on. I'm loving being fitter and healthier, but I now have a real shortage of things to wear! I've also been decluttering the sitting room and reclaimed my writing desk from beneath a mountain of paperwork. Perhaps I'll find it easier to sit there and write this weekend while watching the world go by outside.

K


No comments:

Post a Comment