Progress Along The Way: Chapter 3

This week the reasons behind doing things like the morning pages & the artist's date are becoming more obvious to me. As I spontaneaously write my morning pages or, often ,evening pages), patterns begin to emerge. Interesting. As I begin to understand more about the process, I find that I am much more interested in continuing through the book. I am a person who does not take well to being told to simply do something without having an explanation about 'why' I am doing it! Most likely I drive my physician batty because of that particular personality trait! This week the meat of the chapter was several things that I am not fond of thinking about. Anger for instance. I think of anger as an emotion that eats energy - I try to control it - which I suppose we all do in a (more or less) civilized society!

Synchronicity is also included in this chapter and this is something that I most definitely DO believe in wholeheartedly. One of the more meaningful quotes from this chapter is from Stella Terrill Mann; "Desire, ask, believe,receive." Oh! Yes we can! Under this heading Ms. Cameron notes that one must "understand that the what must come before the how. First choose what you would do. The how usually falls into place of itself."

This was a really 'beefy' chapter. Shame is a sub topic, as is 'dealing with criticism' - both of which are things that I would prefer not to get into, but both are good areas for me to work on. A very interesting thing happened as I worked through this chapter. One of the exercises (requires writing) for the chapter is called 'detective work' & there are 20 questions to answer. I found the separate sheets that I had used long ago when I first tried to work my way through this book - the odd thing being that my answers to the 20 questions were exactly the same both times.

The final section of this hefty piece of weekly reading is about growth - again including some written questions. This was, for me, the best part of all. It reconfirms my understanding that, although frustrating, growth requires some dormancy in the process - those times when we experience a block - and feel that nothing is working - or that no ideas are flowing. Yes! This too is a good thing, a necessary thing for growth. Salient points from this sub topic include:

Being open accepting help.

Being open to solitude.

Being alert to support and encouragement that may come from
channels other than you would expect them to.

Taking care of yourself - or is perhaps taking responsibility for yourself?

I am finally beginning to look forward to doing the next chapter in this book - somthing I was not completely sure I would at the beginning of this journey. I am becoming fascinated with the process. I am accepting that there are some topics that I would prefer not to pay attention to - but that by paying attention to them I am opening myself up to bigger & better things. as well as to more self understanding. This is becoming a very interesting little journey into the me of "me".