Rebecca gave me this great book, The Artist's Way. I was reading it yesterday and that, together with a really hard conversation earlier in the morning, led to a couple of insights that, while not especially pretty, will help a great deal, I think (and hope).
The first will probably be no surprise at all to anyone who has read this journal and is perceptive: I have been seeking out and thriving on the sympathy of others and using it to fuel pity for myself. It's time that changed, and Rebecca, both directly and indirectly, helped me to this understanding. The present, while there are feelings of loss and sadness, is also a time when new things can be born. My choice is whether to continue to be absorbed in those feelings, or to step forward in faith that there is a creative process at work which will bring me, or help me to find, wisdom, fulfillment, contentment and the best kind of companionship. Do I trust the process? The divine forces at work all around me? Or will I shut myself off from them, disbelieve in them, lament that God's timing is so different from the timing I would prefer? Rhetorical questions.
And the second is that I have been in danger of becoming what the author calls a "crazymaker": one who is long on problems and short on solutions. I don't choose to do that, either!
So with apologies and gratitude to the friends and family who have been so wonderful, I am working on re-frame the issues in a more helpful way.
The Artist's Way is a wonderful book. Though its stated purpose is to facilitate creativity, its exercises, etc. also facilitate spiritual healing. I suppose it's no surprise that those two things should be intertwined.
Posted by: Amy Eades | May 24, 2004 at 03:01 AM