booandbunny

Making that list was one of the better things I’ve done in the past few months. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve re-read it! “OK, that’s actually done as much as it can be. NEXT!” (I just watched Elaine Benes yell NEXT at the Soup Nazi last night. I don’t know why, but I love love love Julia Louis Dreyfus’ face when they freeze her in that determined, satisfied growl at the end of that Seinfeld episode.)

So I’ve trimmed back and mulched my gardens, cleaned out the basement and disposed of the recyclables, charitable donations and trash. I do still need to make a stop at the kids re-sale shop. I finished Christ the Lord Out of Egypt by Anne Rice, which was on my list of “hope to read it this year” books. And I put together three pieces for that local art show … a collage and two photographs. The theme of the show was “Black and White and Re(a)d All Over.” All my years in newspapers, it spoke to me.

So, in an effort to get back to blogging I went back to my first-ever favorite blog and found this, which really hit me after my stop at the local cultural arts center. Firstly, I felt quite intimidated and a bit silly with my entries once I saw some of the real art already on the walls. Then I got the treatment, the one Alexandra so adequately describes as the “snooty artists and writers who act is if the creative process is an exclusive club of sorts.” I nearly didn’t enter until I heard Hubby’s mantra in my head: “Fuck it! Just do it.”

Yes, the unedited Nike campaign got me going the way it usually does. I had fun in the creating and you know what … they aren’t so bad. And when you look at the many ways the theme was interpreted it’s really a fascinating exploration of the mind. We all read the same rules and came up with such different interpretations. Fascinating.

So I’ve taken care of a few big-ticket items, which feels really good. I created a little motivation of my own, and in so doing have discovered (and rediscovered) motivation elsewhere.

In Rice’s author’s note she talks about the genesis of her idea, the research and how her quest to create this book sustained her through her husband’s illness and death. “From that time on, December 2002 when he died, until 2005, I have studied the New Testament period, and I continue to study. I read constantly, night and day. … what would I write about my Jesus? I had no idea. But the prospects were interesting. … But I must do my research before I wrote one word.”

I felt like this note from her was written expressly for me. Leave out all of the religion. It was the idea of letting the voices haunt her … letting them transform and change as she learned more about their time in history … listening to them instead of hastily casting them to a page without looking back or letting them grow. It was exactly what I needed to hear. And so I added an item to the list of things that keep me from the keys, only this one is intentional … Research the history surrounding your idea. READ! And listen to your character instead of tuning her out.

Then last week at karate class I found motivation for my kids, frustrated by certain elements of the schoolwork load, as well as for myself.

“If you’re not workin’ hard I can’t teach you. I can teach someone who’s tryin’. But if you’re not tryin’ … I can’t help you. Got it?”

Yes, Sensei.

And then came the embrace of Alexandra’s post. So I think I’ll wear a colorful scarf today, just to help me remember there’s something surprising inside me if I just keep pulling for it.

NEXT!