Two Lightbulbs Are Better Than One

Yesterday I sent in a short story to my writing group, with clenched teeth, with the subject line "It is What it is." I complained to Graham about the story, and he said, "Remember, this is your work and you are DOING IT."

Ah yes, wise husband, you are so right.

It was just a year ago that I still wished I was writing fiction regularly--something I used to do in my blazing youth. I wanted to get back to it--and now here I am regularly finishing short stories and actively working on them with yes, some frustration, but most of all joy. I really love writing, and I had forgotten what it was like to sink into a world that you create on your own--and to COMPLETE it. What helped me get back into it was joining a writing group. We meet once a month and since there are six of us, we each submit every other month--so it's just enough time to give us each some time and space, but it also keeps us each working. I can't express how much I needed this and LOVE IT.

I used to be a very solitary artist--I was fiercely independent and I didn't want other people in on my work. It somehow fed the fiery belief that I was REAL and ORIGINAL and DEEP (oh yes, that argument again). Yet, as I've gotten older, and realized the things I actually WANT in my life, I was feeling increasingly isolated and stuck in my own vacuum. I wasn't getting as much done as I wanted and I was also getting STUCK in my head about the IDEA of being an artist and not so much being an ACTIVE artist. The reality is, I needed accountability, a schedule, and most of all, I needed people to get things done.

I recently began a group with 3 other women who were interested in accomplishing goals and working on making creative changes in their lives. It took awhile to get off the ground--we needed to set strict guidelines and it took a few meetings to discover what the guidelines needed to be. Then, finally, the last meeting we met, with our guidelines in place, it seemed to CLICK. When we all stated and wrote down our goals for our next meeting I felt this swell of inspiration--not just for my own goal, but for the other 3 women's goals. We were all in it TOGETHER. I felt a part of something real and tangible and I think they felt it too.

I've had an artistic dream for years (that I am not ready to share here in specifics), but I never knew how to go about doing it. Then my friend Jose, "out of the blue," asked me if I ever thought about doing that specific dream. I was stunned. He also had a creative dream that jived with mine and so, for the last 4 months, we have been meeting regularly to work on it.

What does it all this mean? OTHER PEOPLE HELP. I think the creative blog world is a great example of people wanting to REACH OUT and create TOGETHER. I also think that's why people seek out life coaches or take classes. For me, I needed the flesh and blood angle of face to face meeting. When I first heard about this amazing group, I was so jealous, which told me that I was lonely for other active artists and people who wanted to get stuff done. Community matters. It can be the difference between WISHING and DOING. Having real life people you work with and work for is a powerful tool. It gets it OUT of your head and into the REAL world. Suddenly, you're in CAHOOTS withs someone and I love sharing this experience in the real time of my life.

Now you'll have to excuse me, I got some other stuff to do. Some people are counting on it.