Finding W's, Finding Water

I found my dubba-ya, and I found the Universe has a sense of humor...well, actually I kind of already knew that - I've seen it in action before, I think. Hope this isn't too woo-woo or way out there, but I thought I would share it with you, since yesterday was supposed to be the first day of blogging Finding Water, but I didn't blog on it, because I was busy er, finding water. If you feel like taking a dip into my stream of consciousness, wade in and read on....

Let's see, first I lost my ess, got that back on - then lost the dubba-ya, but it wouldn't go back on and stay on. Then with loads - and I do mean Loads - of laundry to do, I found that we were unable to use the washer at home (don't ask - but finding water, solving water problems here these last couple of weeks, has been an ongoing issue). So I threw all the laundry in the car, along with the laptop to be fixed. I headed off to where I needed to take the computer first, to get that pesky 'W' reattached. Traffic was kind of heavy for a Saturday, and I was pondering what to do about this latest home water issue.

Have you ever been driving and your mind drifts a bit, and suddenly you come back to reality, but you're not completely sure where you are? Um, well, sometimes that happens - even though I usually pay close attention to what I'm doing behind the wheel (this is southern California, you never know what may happen on the road), every now and then that happens to me, and this was one of those times. It took me a minute to get my bearings, where am I? How soon is the off-ramp? Did I pass it? I moved over to the right lane prepared to take the next exit, turn around and go back if I needed to - I got over to the lane just in time to see my exit immediately coming up...Waterman Ave! Found it -Whew! I made it over in the nick of time - I didn't miss it after all.

Took the computer in, explained what had happened with the key popping off, opened the computer and couldn't find the key...I'd set it in there and closed the case, put it in my messenger bag; it couldn't have gone too far. Looked down and realized it had fallen out when I opened the case. "W! There you are!"  Waited several minutes as the technician was having trouble reattaching it himself; finally, I thought, I'm probably making him nervous, hovering over him while he's trying to do this, so I asked to use the restroom, wandered back through the hallway, trying the wrong door, then finally found it (found water!). When I came back, he'd just gotten the "w'' reattached and was testing to make sure the other keys were all safely attached. All was well, and best of all, free! I was back on my way to the laundromat in no time - except...

I made a quick detour by the bookstore, thinking I'd pick up a magazine to flip through at the laundromat. What do I see when I walk in?  There on the front shelf - The Secret. Forty percent off with B&N membership card. And there is one - only one! copy left - sitting by it's lonesome on the shelf. I took this as a sign from the Universe to over-ride my book buying budget for the month, and bought it.

(I'm sorry I know this must be tedious - but I'm working through the whole sequence trying to see if there is really as much synchronicity at work through all this, as it feels like...)

I finally got to the laundromat, and unloaded the laundry - under the laundry baskets, I find a bag that I'd forgotten was in the car, the bag holding the book and notebook pictured here. Julia Cameron's "Finding Water," the third in her Artist's Way books, that I joined an on-line group for a couple of weeks ago, though we weren't going to start actually blogging about as a group, until the 17th, which was in fact, yesterday's date. I have been so much looking forward to this group getting started - I participated in an on-line group reading of Artist's Way last year, and really enjoyed doing that with a group so much better, than when I tried to do the Artist's Way on my own. Here it was the 17th already, and I'd been so caught up in finding my "w" and find real water to wash laundry in, I'd forgotten all about it being the day!

So while waiting for laundry to wash, I sat and went back and forth between the two books; periodically writing in my little notebook I'd gotten for my latest attempts at 'Morning Pages' - even though it was already moving from late afternoon into early evening by then. (I used to feel really shy about writing in public, but now I pretend I"m a writing a paper for college - I don't know how to explain this, but when I used to just "try to write" without a book in front of me, people would always look over curiously, and sometimes even question me - "What ya writing? A book?" I would mumble something incomprehensible about something for work, while thinking to myself, 'well, yes, actually I am writing a book, not that I want to talk to anyone about it,' lol. Now, I prop a book (or in this case, two!) in front of me and periodically glance at them - and everyone just assumes I'm doing homework, pays no attention to me. Of course, if it's something like a Stephen King book or some other thriller, you might invite more questions! Sometimes, I'll take the jacket off a hardback, and leave it open on the table, so they can't see the title on the spine, hee-hee. Just thought I'd pass that on, in case anyone else feels awkward about writing in public). Sorry I've digressed again, haven't I...OK, back to the point I was trying to make about this chain of events...

The point I'd left off at reading in 'Finding Water' is actually about writing Morning Pages. This has been my stumbling block, each time I've worked on the Artist's Way. Artist's Dates? I am so THERE! I am all over those like, well, like a duck on the water. Morning Pages? (writing three pages - by hand, first thing every morning)  Um, not so much. I've struggled with this concept for years, trying to make myself do it. And sitting down, reading between the two books, while making notes in my notebook to myself, I finally realized why.

Cameron tells those on the Artist's Way/Finding Water - to write whatever comes to them, good, bad, just whatever first comes to mind. Here's an excerpt from page 14: "Be trivial, be petty, whine, grump, groan, and complain. Morning pages siphon off a haze of negativity through which we normally face our day. The negativity goes onto the page instead of just wafting around us as we make our way through our daily lives."

Now please don't think I'm criticizing Cameron, her writing or the Artist's Way or Finding Water - or you, if writing Morning Pages this way, is what works for you, But it doesn't work for me. It just makes me focus on all the things that are wrong, and then they seem to just get more wrong for me. It just doesn't work for me, to dwell on the negative. But I hadn't realized this was my stumbling block with Morning pages, till I read this next bit, in the Secret, just a few minutes later (strangely enough, on page 14 of that book - the same page number as the excerpt from Finding Water):

"When you focus on the things that you don't want - "I don't want to be late, I don't want to be late" - the law of attraction doesn't hear that you don't want it. It manifests the things that you're thinking of, and so  it's going to show up over and over and over again. The law of attraction is not biased to wants or don't wants. When you focus on something, no matter what it happens to be, you really are calling that into existence."

Eureka! I found it! The reason why writing the Morning Pages the way that I'd tried before, just seemed to make each day that I did them that way, well, go even worse. Which made me feel more and more averse to doing them, even though I didn't consciously know why I didn't like doing them. I just need to focus when writing these pages, on writing down how I want my day TO go, not how I don't want it to go, if I'm making any sense. So you know what I did? I wrote down what I really wished I were doing (instead of sitting in a laundromat on a Saturday night)  I wished I were sitting in an Italian restaurant with my husband, eating this spaghetti dish that I didn't know the name of, but I could picture it in my mind - I could almost taste it. It would have olive oil and real tomatoes and litle flakes of parmesan, mmm.

Before I knew it, the laundry was dry, and I kept thinking about that dish, the whole time I was folding clothes. I was so hungry - I hadn't eaten in hours. When I finally got home, it turned out K. was starving, too - he hadn't eaten either, while he was trying to figure out plumbing. He couldn't find what had gone wrong, but everything seemed to be working - now. Even though it was late, we decided to get back in the car, and drive to this Italian place (coincidentally once again, off the Waterman exit) - somewhere that in the past, we had been reluctant to go to because they always have such a long wait - but tonight? Even though they had a couple of large parties waiting for tables, they could seat two, right away).  And guess what was on the menu? Which I'd never actually had there before (we'd been there years ago, when it first opened, but I know I had just the soup and salad then). And the cappelini tasted just like I'd imagined it.

When I woke up this morning, I just kept running it all over in my mind. This may be one of those things, that only makes sense to me...but I'll throw it out here - see if anyone else sees the pattern that I'm finding in my mind. I joined the "Finding Water" group a couple of weeks ago, and suddenly, while I'm thinking about 'Finding Water' we have a series of coincidental water issues around the house (I'm not blaming the group, lol - I'm just saying it's a strange coincidence that when I kept thinking about "Finding Water" - well, suddenly we had let's just say either too much water or not enough, lol...) Then the 'W" popping off on the day the group was to start, and needing to go to Waterman, and almost missing it; losing then finding the 'W' and finally getting it back on, while I was finding the water in the restroom, lol; then finding the last copy of the Secret (which I've been wanting more and more). Going to the laundromat, and discovering I had, not only my new copy of the Secret, but also finding that I had "Finding Water," with me, and realizing it was the day the group was to start. Then reading a little from both, having my "a-ha!" moment after reading something on the same page on each of the books; writing down how I wished my evening would be...going back to Waterman, where my evening went the way I wished. Just occurred to me, that "wish" also starts with a "W."

Hmm. Anyway, it may be synchronicity, or it may all be nothing more than a string of meaningless coincidences - but at least I'm much more excited about doing Morning Pages now, focusing on how I want (another 'w'!) my day to go, instead of Whining (there's that 'W' again) about how it will be or how I don't want it to go. Thanks for pointing that out to me, Universe.

W's - I never realized how many of them there are - what power they might hold - till now! Who, what, where, why, when, wish, wand, want, wonderful, wisdom, will, write, weird, wild, wander, way, went, with, wind, water - Woo-hoo! I have my double-u back!

Um, don't worry - just because I'm Finding Water, doesn't mean I'll be washing all my dirty laundry here...

Regular programming should resume shortly, as I return from the OuterLimits of the Twilight Zone ;-)

Comments

[leah]

wowzers! what a wicked wonderful post!!;-) i loved all the synchronicities you experienced. just awesome!

as for the mp's, it's funny, i never really focused in on the bit about using the pages to complain, i just took that as permission to complain if you should want to. and some days there is complaining, but most of my pages aren't really complaints, but just a general mind dump of whatever happens to float up into my consciousness.i am so glad that you have uncovered this road block and i'm wishing you happy mp writing from here on out! :-) plus, i love to finish off all my mp's with a list of what i'm grateful for, some affirmations and finally sending some love out to a list o people in my life including those i'll meet that day.

[leonie]

well, i was going to just say *WOW* but i like leah's word "WOWZERS" better. don't you love synchronicity?

[Kate Robertson]

Wow that was awesome, I like all that synchronicity. That's a great insight on morning pages. Just changing it to the vision of what you want your life to be would really be powerful. I have started doing them several times too. I'll have to check out Finding Water.
Kate

[miss*R]

there are no such things as co-incidences in life....none what so ever!
I haven't read the artists way - I get confused with too many self help books... simple abundance will have to do for me this year.
tomorrow I am off to have cranio-sacral balancing - gawd, that sounds odd, doesn't it?

[miss*R]

oh, by the way though - do you recommend the artists way? the other one isn't available here in Aus, yet

[Pam Aries]

WElll... you know what I think ...ha! THoughts become things!.. There are no coincidences...what you have written is the perfect exaple of the LAW of Attraction! The whole time i was reading this I was thinking Yep.. uh huh...yep! She is focusing on water and that is what she is receiving! ...I do agree with you on the Morning Pages! I used to write all the bad stuff out til there was no good stuff! THen I realized that is all I was FOCUSING on! Now I only write positive things. I create my day !

[Pam Aries]

WElll... you know what I think ...ha! THoughts become things!.. There are no coincidences...what you have written is the perfect exaple of the LAW of Attraction! The whole time i was reading this I was thinking Yep.. uh huh...yep! She is focusing on water and that is what she is receiving! ...I do agree with you on the Morning Pages! I used to write all the bad stuff out til there was no good stuff! THen I realized that is all I was FOCUSING on! Now I only write positive things. I create my day !

[Melba]

I will be honest I got distracted several times reading this post (Maggie telling me she can't find her cinderella doll, wanting a story, ect...)
I thought about this alot last week...the secret (I have yet to see the DVD, but have seen the Oprahs and viewed the site) says to be positive and Julia does say to whine it out...

In my Morning Pages I like to focus on the positive and then be aware if negative stuff comes up and then re-phrase it.

I like Julia, but I don't love her, But I do love the community.

And I love how supportive and encouraging you always are to me.
Thank you!!!
I am here for you too!
XO,
Melba

[janet]

I do write morning pages most days and I own the DVD of The Secret and have watched it several times. I do believe that thoughts become things so I find nothing weird about your experiences that day. I don't think it's Twilight Zone time! I think it's the universe fulfilling your thoughts.

[Daisy Lupin]

Wow, Watch out it is Wonderful that W is such a Wonderous, Wicked and Worthwhile letter for you.

[Jana]

Tinker, you got my Strange Literary Word of the Day right! Congrats! And welcome to my Blogger Hall of Fame!

Sorry I'm so behind on your blog *hugs*

[Paris Parfait]

I don't like writing things longhand and have never done that morning pages bit - but maybe now that I'm more disciplined in writing, because of the blog, I can manage it. Amazing how all your "Ws" fell into place within one day! Fascinating tale of synchronicity. (And how terrific that you got your yummy Italian meal)! xo

[artzyjudie]

Um, I think it's the secret of The Secret! In longhand. ;)

[tammy vitale]

I think it's the power of connected community - that's what I think - my morning pages are delivering amazing things to me already! (it's the 3rd page - that's where things always pop) - I use it as a musing place to start and just let what wants to come, come and then the Universe delivers something Pow I'm not expecting...and this one is moving really fast - I can only credit the group.

Thanks for taking the time to type all this - it's too wonderful to miss!

[patry]

I love that book, though I never do morning pages. My own writing, I guess, is my morning allotment.

[Caroline]

Tinker - this was brilliant - you are clearly a great manifestor - after all it was after _you_wished me luck that I had my best premium bonds win.

I rarely grump in my morning pages - I wake up with much more interesting things to write about!

But you could find a way to write about things that you don't wan to manifest. Perhaps use a different coloured pen?

And there is always the doodling option...

[Tammy]

dodododo dodododo freaky deaky Tink! Messages from the universe ;) HUGS

[lisa]

This is so awesome! I have never liked keeping a journal for the same reason. I would write the bad stuff down(even then I tried to keep a gratitude journal lol) and then I'd be in a bad mood and it seemed to only confirm how bad things really were! WHy haven't I thought to journal how I want things to BE!? Thank you so much. I am going to do this.

Oh man. My son just came by and told me the best one-liner he's ever heard. "Everyone who believes in telekinesis,raise my hand." ROFL

[Alison Whittington]

Hmmm... I've never had much trouble with morning pages before, whether I'm writing good or bad things, but I am going to try your positive approach for a while and see how it goes. I've been trying to pay attention to good things lately, and this would help, I think.

(p.s. I do write my morning pages at all hours of the day or night, though -- I aim for morning, but figure writing them at all is the important thing -- and I, too, have trouble writing in public, because I have had so many people ask me what I'm writing, or, worse, even if it's unintentional, glance at what I'm writing, and it feels like they're looking down my cleavage or something.)

[theresa]

Thanks for alerting me to this wonderful post of yours! I love to see synchronicity in all it's splendor revealing itself to us. I've always written in public and no one has ever interupted me to ask what are you doing? hrmphf! Must be where I live or something. Either that or I give off a "don't bother me, I'm writing a novel vibe--either that or everyone else here in Hollywood is writing a novel, screenplay too!
FW must be a new one--I hadn't heard of it yet. I think you are on to something though about writing MP in a more postive light. It also brings to mind the guy in What the Bleep that talks about how he creates his day.

[GeL (Emerald Eyes)]

Wonderful, Wandering (but with purpose) Writing!
Yes, yes, yes!!!!!!!!I'm right with you about those artist's dates that I did long before Cameron suggested it(mental health days, some called it...), but my negativity is siphoned off in other ways, usually more physical or creative than first thing in the (ugh, morning). (I'm a nightowl.)

I also read The Artist's Way sveral years ago. Morning pages don't work for me for some reasons similar to yours and some other ones. I have adapted them to what works for me.

Happy you're W is back. I've done similar things in public to lessen the curiosity of others. Less people come over when I'm writing than when I'm sketching or photographing.
Happy for you about The Secret. What a find!