A Snowy Moon
“I began to notice that each moment was not without its beauty…”
An exerpt from “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron
“…Writing about attention, I see that I have written a good deal about pain. This is no coincidence. It may be different for others, but pain is what it took to teach me to pay attention. In times of pain, when the future is too terrifying to contemplate and the past too painful to remember, I have learned to pay attention to right now.
The precise moment I was in was always the only safe place for me. Each moment, taken alone, was always bearable. In the exact now, we are all, always, all right.
Yesterday the marriage may have ended. Tomorrow the cat may die. The phone call from the lover, for all my waiting, may not ever come, but just at the moment, just now, that’s all right. I am breathing in and out. Realizing this, I began to notice that each moment was not without its beauty.
The night my mother died, I got the call, took my sweater, and set out up the hill behind my house. A great snowy moon was rising behind the palm trees. Later that night, it floated above the garden, washing the cactus silver. When I think now about my mother’s death, I remember that snowy moon…”
Julia Cameron
Quoted with permission, from The Artist’s Way ©1992, 2002 by Julia Cameron, published by Tarcher/Penguin
Photo: Moonrise on Hobart Bay taken by the
U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
A Zen Moments Bookstore Favourite:
The Artist’s Way:
A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
By Julia Cameron
Award-winning writer Julia Cameron is the author of seventeen books, fiction and non-fiction, including The Artist’s Way, The Vein of Gold, and The Right to Write, her bestselling works on the creative process. A novelist, playwright, songwriter and poet, she has distinctive credits in theatre, film and television.
“This book will ignite your creativity…” 
Years ago I bought, read and began working from this book, and it has literally changed my life. To start with, it opens up your buried creativity and brings alive all your dreams and visions. It’s simply magical.
Two of the best pieces of advice I got from it and still use to this day (almost 10 years later) are the concepts of “filling the well” – in other words, taking an “artist’s date”, and morning pages.
… an “artist’s date” means that once a week you go and fill your creative well by doing whatever speaks to you. Go into nature; go to a 1 dollar store; go to a museum. But go alone and listen to your inner voice.
Next is to wake up each morning and commit to writing three pages. These are called morning pages, and I’ve been doing them ever since. I can’t tell you how magical it is to get my thoughts out of my head and onto paper. It changes the whole day, and this practice alone has made it possible for me to start writing.
Buy this book. It will change your life, too.” Michael Z author of The Wisdom of the Rooms “A Year of Weekly Reflections”
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Great Exerpt from The Artist’s way. It had this serene zen feel to it. Thanks for sharing, I will have to check it out.
Peace
Jonathan