Morning Pages

Some of you may recall that a couple weeks ago, I allowed my muse to steer my car to a subdivision garage sale instead of returning home to write after a morning of errands.

Down the first street, I found myself parked outside an unlikely house...unlikely because the driveway was cluttered with toddler toys and Little Tykes furniture--items P and I have vowed we're done with. Brimming with a sense of play after C's Fabulous First Annual Sooke Writer's Retreat, I indulged my muse by taking a look. Inside the garage, buried beneath a pile of cookbooks, I discovered a used copy of Julia Cameron's book The Vein of Gold, A Journey to Your Creative Heart.

The first chapter alone is worth the two dollars I spent. In it, Cameron introduces the first tool in her "prescription for artful living."

Morning Pages.

Writing three single-spaced 8 1/2 x 11 pages each morning, Cameron says, will "center you, steady you, empower you, enlighten you(,...) comfort you, console you, stimulate you, intrigue you, challenge, irritate, and activate you." This promise alone was enough to convince me to try the daily exercise, but Cameron doesn't stop there.

She devotes an entire chapter to the practice. After listing more benefits, she offers what, for me, was the most compelling reason to include Morning Pages as part of a daily writing routine:

"Practiced over time," Cameron says, "Morning Pages become a reliable bridge to the Universe itself. Through them you will encounter the workings of your spirituality, the great Creator within, with all its grace, wisdom, and power."

I wrote my first three pages this morning.