Musings Mid May 2023

I am craving a daily ritual. I’ve decided to start with Morning Pages, a practice recommended by Julia Cameron in her classic book The Artist’s Way.

Cameron suggests writing three longhand pages first thing upon waking. Do not think; just keep the pen moving until you fill your pages. No need to read what appears. Unless you feel like it. I have made this a daily practice in the past, and it really brings clarity and focus to my day. Don’t ask me how it works. It’s a mystery.

Here is how Cameron describes her simple yet profound practice.

“Morning Pages are three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing done before the day “begins” to prioritize, clarify, and ground the day’s activities… They hold worries about the car’s peculiar knocking or the source of this month’s rent money. They hold reservations about a friendship or speculation about a job possibility. They mention, sometimes repeatedly, overeating, undersleeping, over-drinking, and overthinking.

It is as though by setting our inner movie onto the page, we are freed up to act in our lives. Suddenly, a day is filled with tiny windows of time available for our conscious use. It may be as simple as the fact that we wrote down “I should call Mary” that cues us into calling her when a moment looms free. Our days become our own.”

https://juliacameronlive.com/2019/09/24/the-bedrock-tool-of-the-artists-way-morning-pages/

Cameron does not specify the size notebook to be used or the size of your handwriting. I am using a midsize notebook and large handwriting.

Do you have a daily ritual? Hit Reply and let me know.

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Here are the replies from the last newsletter of books people are reading.

From Bonnie: Haiku Hawaii:

The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman

I just read this wonderful book in my Jewish book club

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From Donna: Bend, Oregon:

My Family and Other Animals by Gerry Durrell

I'm loving this book. What's so interesting to me is that there doesn't seem to be any major conflict or storytelling arc- it is just plain delightful. Maybe sometimes that's enough! 

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From Lois: Leucadia, California:

The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit

A quote from the book:

 This is the strange life of books that you enter alone as a writer, mapping an unknown territory that arises as you travel. If you succeed in the voyage, others enter after, one at a time, also alone, but in communion with your imagination, traversing your route. Books are solitudes in which we meet.

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 From Wendy: Carlsbad, California:

Solito: a memoir by Javier Zamora

Oh my. So many thoughts! Loved it!

Unearthed by Meryl Frank

a family memoir about the Holocaust and the mystery of a forbidden book. It’s a riveting read.

Here’s To Reading, Writing, and Ritual,