Katy Bowman

Last week was a tough week for creative work. I had family coming in from out of town and I hosted dinner for 18 on Friday, which means my creative work really was just cooking. Which is fun for me. Especially since I was trying out a couple of new recipes this year (and they were successful!).

It was funny, though, I woke up Monday morning last week with a desire to do Morning Pages. For those of you who have never encountered Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, Morning Pages are three stream-of-consciousness, long-hand pages you’re supposed to write every morning, first thing. They’re meant to get your brain going so you can focus.

I used to do them every morning. I would get up early, sit down, and just write. I was strict about it, too, following Cameron’s instructions to use regular-sized paper and write first thing, before I did anything else (well, anything besides get myself a cup of tea first). And I found, after a while, that on days when I didn’t do them, my brain didn’t feel as good. It wasn’t as clear and sometimes, if I didn’t do them for a few days, I would start feeling a bit down.

Even so, however, eventually I became interested in doing other things with that time and I stopped doing them. Until Monday, I hadn’t thought about doing Morning Pages in a couple of years. But I got up Monday morning and I sat down and I wrote three pages long-hand and it felt so good! I’ve been doing them every day ever since.

Some days are easier than others. Like this morning, I didn’t get three pages in. But even writing two pages is something.