The book has been around for a very long time, published in 1992. It is a 12 week 'program' to loosen the jaws on your creative self. It is about helping you gently find your artistic voice. We shared our results in a 'round robin' envelope that traveled from VT to FL to TX to OR (repeat). When you got the envelope back you took out your old postings and added new. It was so much fun to find the envelope in my mailbox!
My favorite part though was not the exercises, to free my inner artist, but the Morning Pages which freed my inner thoughts. For 11 years I did not miss a day to wake and write 3 pages stream of conscious. What a gift they became to me.
Note: Once, I was in a hotel in Austin, TX (at another polymer retreat) and sharing a room. I couldn't miss doing Morning Pages so I went into the bathroom, draped the tub with the bed comforter, settled in and wrote. Dedication?)
I decided before I even went in to talk with Lillian, that I was going to stop at the store on my way home and buy a notebook. Julia's thinking is for it to be organic, not overly thought out. No pretty book. No arrangement of colorful makers. No pomp what-so-ever. A .99 school notebook is perfect. It is not about punctuation or spelling or perfect grammar. It is suppose to be a simple act of moving your hand across the page and writing whatever comes to mind. It is an emptying of thoughts.
Julia suggests long hand (not on the computer). It takes me a 1/2 hour to do three pages. They are for my eyes only so that eliminates the need to proofread, correct, edit. In fact she tells you not to even reread them very often. I found an amazing result; I solved problems I didn't know I had, I found solutions to worries, I moved into my day without 'baggage' clinging to me.
As I stood in Lillian's waiting room I thought this might be the perfect time to reintroduce Morning Pages in to my daily routine. Parkinson's is clinging with heavy hand right now and we each struggle with our reactions. Perhaps this will allow me to find solutions, forgiveness, hope or patience. Perhaps it will allow me to release my intense focus and breath gently into my day.