An Imaginative Life

I’ve had a hard time getting back on track after Unclocking. It’s really ticking me off.

The problem is this:

1. I LIKE the flow of time as it was on the retreat. Somehow, I think life should always be like that. It’s comfy and feels natural. Things get done, but in a kind of floating timeless bubble, with round edges and cushy socks… if that makes any sense!
2. On retreat, the “world” disappears. News, deadlines, to-do lists, have-tos; no obligations, responsibilities to others, minimal distractions. It’s a little piece of paradise—like being on the beach in the Caribbean for a week, when all you really need to do is swim, get to meals, sleep and read. Except that on this Unclocking the Universe retreat, there’s an intention to do some inner exploring (hmmm… guess I need to do the post about that!)

So, the world has reappeared. More or less. But I haven’t yet gotten the hang of the to-do lists yet. Nor have I re-gained my morning routine. Which I Love.

I’m giving myself a couple of more days. Or at least, I’m rationalizing them. After all I’m back up to camp on Friday and Saturday. Rehearsals and students start on Monday.

In the meantime, I’ve completely emptied my studio (it’s 500 sq ft, people, and it was FULL!). I still need to choose colour, wash the walls and floor, get the varathane and then, when it’s all dry and pretty, decide what goes back where. I’m getting to the choosing choir and band music. I’ve worked on NMC photos… and there, we go… The List is BACK!

And this is the next problem…

While a retreat is great.. and I would argue, convincingly, necessary to the creative and imaginative life… the reality is that, in order to get things done, one needs to be disciplined, focused and make lists. While creatives don’t like to think that it’s true, I think these are the ones who are least productive. The productive ones have a schedule, stay focused, minimize distractions, close doors, shut phones off, and sit there, inspired or not, as a requirement.(more on THIS ,later, too.)

My morning routine looks like this:

5:00-5:30 (well, 5:45 if I’m lazy) Wake up, Force feet onto the floor and get out of bed before my brain kicks in and says things like, “What the hell are you doing up at this time of day? It’s DARK out, for heaven’s sake! GO BACK TO BED!”

5:30- 5:45 ish: Deal with cats. Food, water, insulin to Allegro. Cats out, cats in. Make hot water and lemon

5:45 ish: Between now and 9 ish, I do the following:

• stretch, baby, stretch- get all the kinks out
• meditate (it’s an active directed meditation… more later)
• 

  Sculpture of Lakshmi (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

  mantra meditation (currently it’s one for abundance (Lakshmi) and one for dispelling obstacles (Ganesha) which I combine with the emWave handheld device

• morning pages (thanks, Julia Cameron)
• 30 min reading. Timed. (thanks, Darren Hardy and Success Magazine) My current book is Alice Bailey’s
  

  English: Alice Bailey Русский: Алиса Анна Бейли (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

  Esoteric Astrology. Yeah, I know.. light stuff for early in the morning. Recent past books include Treatise on White Magic and Externalisation of the Hierarchy). I read these to set my mind at the highest level. They are challenging in ways, and, as I have read so many of the Blue books, they are familiar.

• Breakfast: do you really want to know? Often some kind of combination of hemp seed, chia, buckwheat + kefir and yogurt, cinnamon, fruit, home made, very little sugar, fair trade (Camino) cocoa.

9:00 am ish… start “work”.. whatever is on the action list for the day.

Alright.. .I’ve talked myself into it. That and starting back at working out a few times a week.

However….. I WILL be taking full days off this year. I want to join the Thames Valley Trail Association and hike on the weekends and .. hey, they’ve got a week day hike, too! I will be turning all electronics off. I will be sleeping in on Sundays and allowing the day to unfold as it will. I will be going for walks, will sit down for a good long read (currently reading A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth…. it’s a whopping 1474 pages long!) with a cup of tea in my new little teapot. I will be breathing in the air, leaving space for the creative muse to incubate. I’ll be talking with more friends, writing more, making more music… the imaginative life is not for sissies… but it takes work, gosh darn it, and… we’ll see how this goes this year!

In the meantime, it’s WELL past my bedtime, especially if I want to “get anything DONE tomorrow.” Like get a new cell phone. Aaaargh!!!