Redwing's Artist Date Report

Redwing aka "Tuckie" aka Mary Lucille reports on her Artist Date during the First Week of Our Journey.

I'm a retiree in Morgantown, West Virginia whose passion is writing non-rhyming contemporary poetry. This is my third trip through Julia's twelve week "course" and the value of the Morning Pages alone is astounding. The best way I know to put it is that when I’m writing them, "I'm grounded in my daily life."

My decision regarding The Artist's Date last Saturday, January 23, was to go to a really interesting consignment shop set up by a nurse or former nurse perhaps since she has this growing by leaps-and-bounds business. Usually there are interesting objects galore. On Saturday, everything looked old and much was reduced in price (happens after being there so many months) and I was grumpy when I left.

Unsatisfied, I went Lowe's and Michael’s thinking that at one of those places some creative idea would overpower me but nada....

So grumpy and crabby, I went home unsatisfied -- and then the most amazing thing happened. For months I've known that I needed to go through my closets "yet once again." So I pulled out the great guiding book, Scaling Down, which has a more effective rule for me than "If you haven't worn it for a year..." and read the tabbed paragraph saying "If it doesn't fit; it isn't attractive; if it isn't appropriate for the (name it) occasion, get it out! And, in a happy flurry, I tackled this project which is always difficult for me.

I count the ousted items as a way of monitoring my progress and 29 items were laid out for probably Goodwill. That sounds like a lot but when you are retired, you realize that not only the "big dresses" Oprah says eliminate but others that you really like a) no longer fit; b) are no longer attractive or are hugely out of style and c) suits are actually no longer appropriate to your more casual way of living.

My logical mind says there is a direct connection between a downsized non-cluttered environment and creativity but I had no idea there would be a direct link from the Artist's date to my incredible need to launch spring cleaning and to make space for more creativity. But the link was there and that's the amazing result of my first week's Artist Date.