Week Four -- Check-In

I’ve written about the trials and tribulations of my week of Reading Deprivation here on my blog. It turned out to be an experience worth writing about. LOL.

1. How many days this week did you do your morning pages? (Tantrums often show up and skipping the morning pages.) How was the experience for you?

Yes, every day. Despite JC’s cautions about not wanting to face them, I have not had this experience (yet).

2. Did you do your artist date this week? (Does your artist get to do more than rent a movie?) What did you do? How did it feel?

I had two Artist’s Dates this week, one planned and one otherwise! They both happened in roughly the same place, ironically.

The unplanned date came first. Last Friday, I was coming to work in the early afternoon, after a morning meeting off campus. I park off campus next to a city park to get a nice walk in. As soon as the car radio went off I heard a bagpipe playing. I got out of the car and started looking around. It wasn’t coming from any house across the street. I looked out into the park and about 300 yards away I saw a man standing not far from the bank of the creek, playing the bagpipes. I decided I didn’t really need to be at work just yet. I stood leaning against a tree, looking through the leaves of a low branch, listening to his beautiful, flawless playing. After about ten minutes, he began walking toward me while continuing to play; I was positioned very near to the parked cars. As he approached me we introduced ourselves and he explained that his daughter had started kindergarten and while she attended, he came to the park to practice. I said it was lovely to have such a treat in the middle of the day and he beamed with pride at his work and how it might have made someone else happy. We parted company, but I imagine we’ll run into one-another again some lunch hour.

My planned AD was for Tuesday, mostly because of my work schedule and the threat of rain on Thursday, my only other choice of days. I have been trying to have this date for two previous weeks, but my schedule & the weather have not cooperated! I took my camera and went back across the street from work and went for a walk along the Bridle Path and the Wissahickon Creek in Fairmont Park. I got some GREAT shots, which I have uploaded into my photo section. The sunlight was perfect. As I was returning to campus, I saw a colleague trying to decide if he had time to take a quick walk and I told him what a perfect day it was, and what was going to rot if he wasn’t back for another 20 minutes? I convinced him, and off he went. Hehehe!  I’m doing the photo-shoot-in-the-park AD again when the leaves change.

3. Did you experience any synchronicity this week? What was it.

Yes. Honestly, I doubted there would be any, because I see most synchronicity as a result of reading and communicating (via email, blogs, etc.) with others. None of that this week!  However, I was on the phone with a friend while my son was playing soccer on Saturday and learned that we are planning practically the same summer vacation for next year, and now we’re thinking of going – both families – together.  The more we’ve talked about it, the more we’re realizing that this could really work well. (Including the part where I go off on my own for a pagan pilgrimage, leaving my family to fend for itself.)  

Secondly, I rented a movie for Tuesday night called Fight Club. After all of the memorials for 11 Sep 01 just the day before, I found it ironic (if not significantly serendipitous) to be watching this movie.

And, early in the week a friend told me (enthusiastically) about his discovery of the Mahler “Das Lied von der Erde” but I completely forgot about it until Wednesday when I was looking at work for a CD to listen to, the Beethoven 3^rd Symphony. I couldn’t find the CD anywhere; it was missing. I tried looking on line. None of the links to listen would work. NONE of them. ARGH! So I went again to try and find the missing CD, and instead I found Das Lied von der Erde. I listened to it all day Thursday (having had my Beethoven fix Wednesday night at home).

4. Were there any other issues this week that you consider significant for your recovery/discovery?  Describe them.

Yes, but I’m choosing to let them remain private.