Week 02 Spiritual Path: Open the Door

[rejectionchallenge]

Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way, p. 50-51

One of the things most worth noting in a creative recovery is our reluctance to take seriously the possibility that the universe just might be cooperating with our new and expanded plans. We've gotten brave enough to try recovery, but we don't want the universe to really pay attention. We still feel too much like frauds to handle some success. When it comes, we want to go.

Of course we do! Any little bit of experimenting in self-nurturance is very frightening for most of us. When our little experiment provokes the universe to open a door or two, we start shying away. 'Hey! You! Whatever you are! Not so fast!'

I like to think of the mind as a room. In that room, we keep all of our usual ideas about life, God, what''s possible and what's not. The room has a door. That door is ever so slightly ajar, and outside we can see a great deal of dazzling light. Out there in the dazzling light are a lot of new ideas that we consider too far-out for us, and so we keep them out there. The ideas we are comfortable with are in the room with us. The other ideas are out, and we keep them out.

In our ordinary prerecovery life, when we would hear something weird or threatening, we'd just grab the doorknob and pull the door shut. Fast. [. . . ]

More than anything else, creative recovery is an exercise in open-mindedness. Again, picture your mind as that room with the door slightly ajar. Nudging the door open a bit more is what makes for open-mindedness. Begin, this week, to consciously practice opening your mind.

Comments

[ljwrites]

Cameron goes on to talk in more depth about synchronicity in the Week 3 chapter. I'm resistant to believing this--it feels too much like buying snake oil--but good things really have happened, crativity-wise, once I started committing to creativity. The day before yesterday I announced I would bang out the first draft of my novel in August, even though I had only the vaguest idea of what the story would look like.

Then this morning I had a breakthrough in planning that novel when a book thrown my way by Kobo's recommendation system (The Anatomy of Story, by John Truby) gave me the exact pointers to figure things out. Rationally speaking this is due to my effort, since Kobo wouldn't have recommended that book if I hadn't been reading so many books on writing. Also I wouldn't have gained as much from The Anatomy of Story if I hadn't been reading it with my novel in mind. Still, I feel incredibly lucky that I read the right words at the right time. I'm willing to accept that it's the universe or creative force or whatever that's leading my way, if only to see what happens.

[rejectionchallenge]

Awesome! Would you recommend the Truby book in general? I'm always on the lookout for new writing books.

[ljwrites]

Oh, I would! I'm less than a tenth of the way through and I've already worked through problems that bedeviled me for months. I can't say with 100% confidence because I haven't seen the whole thing yet, but it's definitely helpful so far.

[perfectworry]

Yes, I understand this resistance. I think she talks about it a bit when she writes about the old adage, "God helps those who help themselves." I found the same last time I started (but never finished) the program, when I listed "librarian" as one of my imaginary lives, and shortly thereafter, the librarian position at my school opened up. Synchronicity? Maybe, but I know I had been imagining the possibility when my friend (the librarian at the time) mentioned something had come up with their new hire and I did walk myself downstairs and ask the principal about the position, but… I want to believe, you know?

Based on your recommendation to rejectionchallenge, I'm gonna go look for that book. I have the hardest time with plotting…

[ljwrites]

Wow, freaky. o_O On the one hand I'm convinced it's the human brain's proclivity for patterns that weaves meaning out of coincidence, but then again I find myself thinking: Does it matter? Maybe synchronicity is the name we give the mind's understanding of a random universe. Maybe the reason this happens is because we're thinking of more possibilities and are changing our behaviors in subtle ways, or we're better able to seize on those times when opportunity comes our way. Whatever it is, it seems to work and I'm happy with it.

If I may ask, did you get the librarian position? It would be awesome if you brought your other life into this one. :D

The thing about the Truby book is, I'm nowhere near the plotting stage and already I know so much more about my book(s) than I did this morning. I only did the premise and design principle so far, and even those beginnings are extremely informative. I now know the protagonist's conflict with her beloved sister is going to be the driving force of the first book, and that the three-book structure will follow the three stages of the heroine's life (youth, middle age, old age) as she falls into crisis at the beginning of each book and claws her way to greater ascendency. I have the first and last scenes of the first book with the protagonist and her sister, with a couple of decades and much destruction in between. I learned how my heroine dies at the end of the third book, and more importantly why. And I haven't started plotting yet. This big-picture-first approach is really working for me, and I hope it works for you, too.

[perfectworry]

I'm not sure I believe in a spiritual synchronicity, but I do know that we open ourselves up to (or close ourselves off from) opportunities. I did get the job, because I was thinking about synchronicity and I went downstairs to the principal's office and asked for it. I'm not sure I would have been brave enough otherwise.

I found a copy of the book, and I'm going to take a look through it this weekend! I want to get something together in time for Camp NaNoWriMo!

[ljwrites]

That makes sense to me--synchronicity as a useful belief or concept that opens us to opportunities.

As I read further I'm discovering things that I don't understand or find too rigid, such as the insistence on at least three opponents (who are not necessarily enemies or villains) for the hero. Still, Truby does give reasons for his prescriptions and being able to articulate dissent to his ideas is likely to be at least as valuable as following instructions.