Hopefully I will do some reading this weekend. Reading seems to plant my feet on the ground. I guess it depends what I read...probably why I choose to read books that are reflective in nature. It seems like in the process of letting one's creative side free, you need to recover some lost things in yourself. The last chapters I've read have been on recovering a sense of strength and compassion. There are things we tell ourselves as we develop and that we carry with us until we sort out for ourselves what is true and what is false.

"The Artist's Way"

Pain that is not used profitably quickly solidifies into a leaden heart, which makes any action difficult.

One of the most important tasks in artistic recovery is learning to call things - and ourselves - by the right names. Most of us have spent years using the wrong names for our behaviors. We have wanted to create and we have been unable to create and we have called that inability laziness. This is not merely inaccurate. It is cruel. Accuracy and compassion serve us far better.

Finding it hard to begin a project does not mean you will not be able to do it. It means you will need help - from your higher power, from supportive friends, and from yourself. First of all, you must give yourself permission to begin small and go in baby steps. The steps must be rewarded. Setting impossible goals creates enormous fear, which creates procrastination, which we wrongly call laziness.

There is only one cure for fear. That cure is love.

Fear...I wonder what life would look like w/o fear. It seems to be what drives people to do extreme things. I mean extreme things in a potentially harmful way. I believe love drives people to extremes too.