the second date

(once again: not that kind of date.)

when i began my creativity-recovery workshop back on january 1st, one of the weekly assignments was an artist date. i went on my first date on january 6th, and planned to keep that weekly date no matter what.

i had been warned, both by the person who recommended The Artist’s Way to me and by author julia cameron herself within the book’s pages, that the weekly artist date is, for some, the hardest assignment of all to complete regularly.

i scoffed.

i loved the idea of taking a couple of hours each week to nourish my soul and enrich my creativity, and i was looking forward to coming up with all kinds of fun and interesting activities to treat my inner artist. i figured it would actually be the easiest portion of the workshop, since i’m quite good at doing anything but actually sitting down to write.

so, i came roaring out of the gate (relatively speaking), went on date #1 and then...

crickets.

tumbleweeds.

clock hands spinning.

day turning to night.

calendar pages flying off.

uh oh.

i think the following week i skipped the artist date because of work.

then, two more weeks passed because i was sick (week one) and had an annoying cough (week two).

i’m pretty sure i have no good reason for missing the weeks that followed.

as time went by, i felt like i was letting myself and the process down. not only were the artist dates falling by the wayside, but so were the rest of the weekly homework assignments. i kept intending to sit down and do hours of catch-up, but more days would pass and the tasks would pile up further and, soon, i just thought, “maybe i should start this whole workshop over again from the beginning.”

which is something i may still do.

the only portion of the course that i’ve maintained without fail are the daily pages. but even those are done at random times during the day, different every day, instead of first thing in the morning as the program dictates. i’ve wanted to get back on the horse properly, but have become adept at finding excuses not to – again, something the book cautioned would happen.

and then today happened.

i woke up this morning, flushed the toilet and noticed that the tank did not refill with water. uh oh. i tried the faucet. nuthin’. there was no water.

i called the super and she said that a pipe had broken elsewhere in the building, and that several tenants (not me, thankfully) would have to have their (cement!) walls broken open to accommodate repairs.

oh, and the water, all the water, would be off until mid-afternoon.

ah.

seeing as i had little interest in sitting in my water-less apartment for the next five hours, i decided to head elsewhere. i thought about a long walk, then considered going to see a movie, and then it hit me.

here was a chunk of time where i couldn’t really do work, so how could i make the most of it?

artist date!

so, after running some errands this morning, i took myself on my second official artist date. i headed to another near-100-year-old church nearby to attend their wednesday afternoon organ recital. the building itself was cavernous but somewhat austere – more cement than rich wood, and not quite as photogenic as i’d hoped when i looked at it from the outside. it was, however, serene and steeped in history.

i walked around inside for a bit, took a few pictures, and then settled into a pew to meditate for a few minutes before the recital. once again, as with my similarly themed first artist date, the audience in the church consisted of me and about two dozen seniors, but that was fine. the music selection was okay, some of it a smidge overwhelming more than contemplative, but that was fine. (it was, after all, a giant pipe organ, so a certain booming heaviness is to be expected.)

i was just happy to have climbed back onto a horse i never thought i’d abandon, and to spend half an hour refilling my creative well in a new way.

and i really hope it’s not another five weeks before i take myself on date #3.