Whew! Week 4 proved to be a doozy for both of us! Even before going in, we agreed to take 2 weeks on this chapter because Emily was going to have most of her entire extended family staying at her place for her daughter's birthday. As it turned out, the extra time was critical on both sides... they came down with the Norwalk virus... we also had a medical crisis (which I may blog about at a future date).
Emily was brave and took on the "NO READING" challenge (I chose to take a pass on that one and it turned out to be a really good thing because there is NO WAY I would have made it through last week without reading). She has been limiting her exposure to the internet, catalogues... she even caught herself looking at a magazine when she took her daughter to the ER and made herself put it down! Emily feels that it helped her be more productive... at one point she spent an entire day cleaning her house, and when she went to relax... she couldn't think of anything to do. She ended up drinking water! I've never heard of recreational water consumption, but seeing as how she just had a major flu, it must have been good for her.
My favorite part of the week's assignments was visioning an ideal living/work space. I really enjoyed creating a collage (using images from a Pottery Barn catalogue, mostly...) and find myself coming back to some of the ideas fairly often in an inspiring way. At the core of the work was A Place for Everything, and Everything In It's Place. As a result, I am feeling inspired to unpack my secretary... I'd previously put this off, pending the purchase of a bed. Depending on what we decide about bedroom furniture, it might have to go somewhere else... however, it is a perfect little space for me to develop a "creative haven"~ one of the tasks from last week that seemed impossible at the time. I'm also gearing up to start the difficult, overwhelming task of organizing my side of the office. Baby steps: I cleared out my jewelry box, which turned out to be a bigger job than it sounds like, but I enjoyed organizing the little cubbies and hooks, setting things aside for my nieces and cleaning all my tarnished silver. Not to mention all of my old stuff feels new again!
We are both in a similar space emotionally. Although we kept up with the morning pages, the traumatic events of the week left us unable to do our Artist Dates. And, whether it's related or not, we each feel devoid of emotional attachment or engagement with the Artist's Way process. I wonder if there's something about Week 4 that just does that to you anyway...
However, we maintained our commitment, and I think there's value in that alone, even if it does feel a little... empty.
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