Week 6 Exercise

“The Assumption that art is a regal robe which falls upon your shoulders magically, bestowed upon you as an heir apparent rather than achieved through slinging the pickax across your shoulder every morning and making off to the mine, was revealed as the greatest hinderance of all to artistic work.” ~ Jane Lazarre, Author of The Mother Knot

I think I’ve written before that my husband and I are taking a year to expand our artistic flow by doing the exercises from Pam Gout’s new book Art & Soul Reloaded. This week she challenges us to write a blog post each day until the week 7 exercise. The title of the chapter is “Fear And Insecurity, Be Gone! I’ve Got Brilliance To Create.”

I’ve written and posted a blog once every Wednesday since the spring or summer of 2013. I’ve felt good about that consistency, but to write a post for every day of the week? Not sure I want to take that much time away from my fiction writing. But I think I can write one post a day for one week. So, here goes.

For the last few days my husband and I have been doing thorough house cleaning in preparation for his parent’s visit. One thing is painfully, and I mean PAINFULLY, clear to me is that I need to get out of my writer’s chair more often and move around more. I may have written before that I do not like doing housework. I do it if I need to, but my dream is to have someone come once or twice a month to do a good sweep through our house leaving Barry and me free to do our respective artwork.

About a year or so ago, when I was complaining about having to clean house, Barry surprised me by saying he loves to do housework. This weekend he proved to me that he wasn’t lying. He gets a job between his teeth and doesn’t let go until he’s finished. I told him he’s hired.

He’s also really handy. We live in a manufactured home in the country. Fifteen years ago the company we bought our home from provided us with TEMPORARY stairs for the front and back doors. Well, of course, we have needed to replace them for a long time, and finally, knowing his aging parents needed sturdy stairs to get into our house, he designed and built some beautiful front steps.

Preparing for my in-law’s visit has reminded me of one thing, we sometimes get stuck in one way of thinking. I did that so much so about housework that I’ve let it go far too long. As I look around at our newly clean house, I think I need to reconsider the way I feel about housework. A clean house is certainly a joy to behold, and one way to get up and move around more is to vacuum, dust and mop floors. See you tomorrow.

Thanks so much for reading and making comments.

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, a historical, time-travel, magical realism women’s novel. It’s available in all ebook formats at Smashwords, and print-on-demand at Amazon and other fine book sellers. To join her email list, click here. She will never sell the names on her list.