Jamie Ridler of Jamie Ridler Studios invited her readers to join her in a commitment and a community of morning pages for the month of September. I've tried morning pages before and it stunk. I understood the idea but somewhere in the implementation it turned into one more morning obligation and quickly spun itself out from there. Even so, I wanted to try it again. To see what I would meet on those pages. To get writing again. And this time, I gave myself permission to miss a day or to catch it up in the afternoon as my work schedule and parenting permitted. It worked!
Here's some of what I gleaned from a semi-regular practice of morning pages:
- The pages functioned as a mirror, guide, compassionate inquisitor, and giver of good gifts.
- They nudged me to take the same boldness, assertiveness, methodical-ism, and un-attached-ness that I'm developing in my job and apply it to my writing.
- Reminded me about what I care about, beyond my immediate family. Things like returning to Quaker meeting, reaching out to friends, checking out Venus Hill, book binding, meditation, and painting.
- Showed me the circuitous route I took to this place in my life and the choices, the work and investment and reinvention, that still remains.
- Exorcised a distracting fantasy about my life and showed me what I want and can do.
- Anchored me in myself - boundaries, direction, desires - before the day began with all the pull from others - son, husband, boss, coworkers - for my time, attention, effort, thinking, compassion, and direction.
- Presented a number of topics and ideas to dig into, study, write about.
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