The last exercise for Week 1 in Eric Maisel's The Creativity Book is to engage in a ceremony that honors your dream and keeps it alive twice a day for three days running, then craft your own small ceremony. Following please find my thoughts on the ritual set forth in the book and crafting my own ceremony.
The ceremony in the book consists of making and drinking tea once in the morning and once at night. While making and drinking am I to say to myself, "I have always dreamed of ..." and fill in the blank. Then I'm supposed to feel the dream brewing in me.
First, an anti-consumerism complaint. The book asks the reader to purchase tea and a special mug dedicated to this ceremony. While I understand that investing money in your dream is one step in making that dream a reality, I feel confident in my ability to throw lots of money at this dream/reality transition without adding to our excessive mug and tea collection. Also, like my dream, to become an artist, the mug doesn't have to be brand new to be important.
Second, I had a hard time feeling the dream brew in me. The book suggests the reader, "just be with their dream, love it, and accept it." The first time around I mostly tried to define my dream, what does my dream of being an artist entail. The second time around I focused on what I've been doing already that could be counted towards my artistness already. The third time around I imagined I was being interviewed twenty years from now for a profile of me as an artist. The fourth time around I imagined I was speaking at my high school twenty years from now about how art connects to everything in my life, like math and history, not just stereotypically artistic things. The fifth time around I had reread the assignment and tried to meditate on the idea that I have always dreamed of being an artist. The sixth time around I examined the sentence, "I have always dreamed of being an artist." I listed adjectives describing dreams and tested them to see how they fit with my specific dream of being an artist.
I'm having a hard time thinking of a different ceremony. I like the tea ceremony. I plan to keep doing it until I come up with something else.
Friday, September 5, 2008
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