This Southern Belle's Musings

This Southern Belle's Musings

"Darlin', don't ever take a Southern woman for granted!" [tm]

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Monday, February 13, 2006

It's A Date . . .

"Every child is an artist.
The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."
- Pablo Picasso

As some of my more seasoned readers know, I am a Julia Cameron devotee, owning every book written by her. Each January, I renew with "The Artist's Way" 12-Week Journey. One of the suggested "exercises" for each week is "The Artist's Date":

THE ARTIST DATE
"Doing your artist date, you are receiving -- opening yourself to insight, inspiration, guidance."
YOU are that artist. You are taking yourself out to do something fun, special for yourself. Making an appointment, once a week, to do something new. Different. Nurturing.
"Spending time in solitude with your artist child [yourself] is essential to self-nurturing."

This can be anything, as long as you do something fun and special for yourself. Some of the suggestions from the book, and from some of the organized workshops are: Take a long country walk, Take a solitary trip to the beach at sunrise or sunset. See a local jazz band (or any other genre, maybe one you've never tried before), Go to a local museum or attraction you usually feel is "just for tourists," that you haven't been to for a while, Find a piece of poetry, drag out the watercolors and "paint" the poem - letting the words pick the colors and shapes, Go to a nursery and look at plants, Walk through the woods, Get a movie you really want to see or go to the movies, Spend a complete morning (or evening) in a bookstore, Paint a wall a different color, Go to an out-of-your-price-range store and try on gorgeous clothing, Go to a thrift store and buy something funky, fun or something that's just a bit of a stretch for you -- wear it!, Get a blanket and lay down outside and count stars or try to spot constellations, Plant a butterfly garden (to attract butterflies), Birdwatch, Take a bike ride and go on a picnic, Hang out for a few hours in a neighboring town: visit the Salvation Army Store, walk down by the river, stop in at the library, and maybe visit a flea market, Wander through a picturesque part of town with your sketch pad and draw old houses or store fronts, or just Remember things that pleased you as a child and then do them again.

Yesterday, I had a chance to enjoy my own "Artist's Date", the first in a long while. I visited a local market/bazaar where I found a new pair of earrings - approx. 1" long x approx. 1/8" square 14K gold bars on wires, a page of 144 small stickers in different colors, sizes and fonts with all sorts of world traveling words (paradise, journey, exotic, expedition, voyage, etc.), a set of five metallic colored gel pens, a new bamboo plant - 3 separate plants woven in an intricate spiral pattern in a handmade pottery urn, a wooden boar's hair hairbrush, a fine-tooth/wide-tooth combo comb, 24-autumn-colored covered hairbands, a silk (olive, gray and purple paisley) scarf, and an oversized (black, crimson, navy, and cream paisley) wool scarf. It was a fun excursion, and I enjoyed collecting my 'treasures' to bring home.

I feel inspired to create . . .

Category:: This Thing Called "Life"

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(c) 2006 A Southern Belle's Life

# Kitty purred her secrets at :1:17 PM
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Susan Reno-Gilliland, known as "Miss Kitty," an Irish lass, a true Southern Belle; a writer, photographer, animal-lover, dreamer, stargazer, totally tangled (or is that entangled?) in relationships, slightly obsessive iNFp with stories to tell! . . . (fascinated by forensics, human behavior, pushing all the right buttons of men I find interesting, and seeking utterly-sweet revenge without any repercussions.) I am a Friday's Child. Friday's Child is loving & giving.
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