"Walking in This World" - week 8 "Dicsovering a Sense of Discernment"

[em_gumby]

This week's chapter talks a lot about the pitfalls of success.  Since I don't feel myself to be much of a success at the moment the chapter didn't much speak to me.  Not a real disaster - its likely that on any given week any chapter of any of these books is going to affect me differently, depending on where I feel like I am at mentally and emotionally.  Its still worth tackling, but I got fewer inspirations out of this chapter than many of the previous ones.

As always, I start with the phrases that jumped out of the book, climbed up my optic nerves, and punched me in the brain.

(copyright Julia Cameron)

• When we are in the midst of making something, in the actual creative act, we know we are who and what we are
• We become the art itself instead of the artist who make it.  In the actual moment of making art, we are blessedly anonymous.
  
• We can always make art.  What we cannot always do is make it in the venue we might choose, or even in the field that we consider to be our rightful playing field.
  
• When we insist that we express our creativity in only one field, or even in only one corner of one field, we lose sight of two things - our versatility and our opportunity.
  
• It is difficult to be depressed and in action at the same time
  
• When your life changes speed, it is often difficult to discern what is genuine opportunity and what, on closer inspection, is an opportunity for someone else at your expense.
  
• It is no coincidence that the Chinese hexagram for "opportunity" and "crisis" are the same.
  
• As an artist, some risks are worth taking and some are not.  This is not snobbery.  This is not exclusivity.  This is discretion, discernment, and accountability to ourselves and our gifts
  
• The phrase "more trouble than it is worth" is something to ask about any venture.
  
• We must learn when and how - (to) pull the plug on people  and ventures that do not serve our authentic goals and aspirations.
  
• As artists we are often, far more often, more insecure than grandiose.  We are stubborn as crabgrass, yes, but just as easily stepped on
  
• The answer to "what can I do to help?" is very straightforward:  "love me".
  
• Creative saboteurs hurt us, but they can be survived.