Week 11, Day 1 of The Artist's Way

Today, let's deepen the new pathways that strengthen our creative power.

ACCEPTANCE

I AM AN ARTIST. As an artist, I may need a different mix of stability and flow from other people.

I may find that a nine-to-five job steadies me and leaves me freer to create. Or I may find that a nine-to-five drains me of energy and leaves me unable to create. I must experiment with what works for me.

I must learn that as an artist my credibility lies with me, God, and my work.

In other words, if I have a poem to write, I need to write that poem—whether it will sell or not.

I need to create what wants to be created.

I cannot plan a career to unfold in a sensible direction dictated by cash flow and marketing strategies. Those things are fine; but too much attention to them can stifle the child within, who gets scared and angered when continually put off. Children, as we all know, do not deal well with “Later. Not now.”

Since my artist is a child, the natural child within, I must make some concessions to its sense of timing. Some concessions does not mean total irresponsibility. What it means is letting the artist have quality time, knowing that if I let it do what it wants to it will cooperate with me in doing what I need to do.

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 179 – 180)

Creativity is oxygen for my soul.

Creativity is oxygen for my soul.

An Artist’s Prayer Exercise

Write out, in longhand, your Artist’s Prayer from Week Four. Place it in your wallet.

Here is Julia's example of An Artist's Prayer (pg. 223).

O Great Creator,
We are gathered together in your name
That we may be of greater service to you
And to our fellows.

We offer ourselves to you as instruments.
We open ourselves to your creativity in our lives.
We surrender to you our old ideas.
We welcome your new and more expansive ideas.
We trust that you will lead us.

We trust that it is safe to follow you.
We know you created us and that creativity
Is your nature and our own.

We ask you to unfold our lives
According to your plan, not our low self-worth.
Help us to believe that it is not too late
And that we are not too small or too flawed
To be healed—
By you and through each other—and made whole.
Help us to love one another,
To nurture each other’s unfolding,
To encourage each other’s growth,
And understand each other’s fears.
Help us to know that we are not alone,
That we are loved and lovable.

Help us to create as an act of worship to you.

“Art happens—no hovel is safe from it, no prince can depend on it, the vastest intelligence cannot bring it about.”

– James Abbott McNeill Whistler

What is something new you have discovered that inspires your artist child to freely create?

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