Prayers of Gratitude
Julia Cameron's Seeking Wisdom, week 3
Welcome to the week three post for Julia Cameron’s Seeking Wisdom! Keep reading for my reactions to the third chapter, followed by the weekly check in.
Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer.
-Maya Angelou
Cameron gets straight into the second type of prayer: gratitude. “Sometimes we pray in gratitude, thanking God for an answered prayer. Other times, we enumerate our gratitudes in order that we take stock and see them clearly for what they are. The practice of gratitude fills us with a sense of prosperity and abundance.”
Nature’s Beauty
Cameron looks to the natural world for inspiration of an energetic artist who creates every day. And yes, nature is beautiful. Every spring in central Texas, the wildflowers bloom, many along the highways. They appear overnight, and seeing them for the first time that year often makes me tear up. I think, too, about the little birds who visit my bird feeder. One of my kids has a habit of making a puddle in our yard, not too far from our sunroom windows. Sometimes, especially if the dog is inside, I’ll see the songbirds dip into the puddle for a bath. I am not ashamed to say I watch them, rapt. The fluffy feathers! The water droplets flying!
Gratitude for Others
Cameron often gives us a peek into her daily routine through her books, and her days seem to include many phone calls with friends. I’ll admit that the inclusion of these details make it hard for me to connect with Cameron’s advice sometimes. Am I really looking to her for guidance when our daily lives are so radically different? (Cameron also regularly sends cards to friends, which I find more relatable.) Of course, the purpose of her anecdotes aren’t to illustrate her old-school methods of communication, but to demonstrate how she weaves gratitude for friends and family into her life.
Dear God, Please Help My Mood
“Praying for a change of mood strikes me as petty but useful. Moods, after all, float in like clouds, and I am accustomed to feeling powerless under their weight. Asking for divine help makes me feel less like a victim.”
As someone who would often describe their mood as “cranky” as of late, I was paying close attention to this section.
“A heart that is centered on joy and abundance tends to be a light heart, not a dark one,” Cameron argues, and I agree.
I thought about Tammi Salas’ beautiful daily gratitude lists and my own former practice. Something to explore coming back to.
The Path to Grace
“We speak of finding a path to grace while forgetting that sometimes the path can be quite literal,” Cameron writes, before once again arguing for daily walks. Perhaps if I had somewhere nice to walk, I could get behind this idea.
Finding Gratitude in Pain
“We search for comfort when it seems no comfort is available, for understanding when it seems there are no answers.”
I see where Cameron is going with this section but wished she had included the variable of time. The deaths of my dad and my sister-in-law last year both still feel raw, although less so than they did in the aftermath. And yes, I can find gratitude in both situations. My sister-in-law lived for ten years with a rare brain cancer that has a very low survival rate- most people given that diagnosis get a year to 18 months. 5% make it 5 years. She got twice that! And most of it with a good quality of life. My dad’s death could have been harder and more complicated; I might not have found out for a long time (we were estranged), I might not have had access to his things, etc. And. It still sucks. I need more time.
Check In
How did your week go?
Mine was a scramble, as they all seem to be lately. I did not write any Pages, though there’s a chance that could chance in between the time I’m writing this and when it gets published on Monday. No Artist Dates. Certainly no walks.
I have been scheming and dreaming, and am looking forward to my poetry workshop on Saturday and hopefully a trip to the stationery store on Friday for a new notebook and more stickers. Maybe I will treat myself to sushi from my favorite place; that would make a good Artist’s Date!
If you’re reading along with me, feel free to check in in the comments!
How many days this week did you do your morning pages?
Did you take an Artist Date? How was it?
Did you take your walks?
Did you try asking for guidance in writing, and then listening to the answer?
I've read The Artist's Way but not Seeking Wisdom, though it sounds like the same premise and guidance. Her direction on walks was so helpful. I usually listen to music and I stopped to just listen to the world around me. Made a big difference.
I did ask for guidance in writing, and the act of constantly moving my handwriting meant an answer would arrive, though I will admit that I had to be in a really good state of flow for that to occur. Some of my best pieces of writing have come from those morning pages!