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My dad used to love to go fishing. He’d load up the truck with his fishing equipment and spend a day reeling in his quota. In later years, he’d sometimes come home empty-handed. The fish were scarce, often because the lake had been overfished.
You may wonder what fishing has to do with your beautiful life. Sometimes our lives feel like overfished lakes. If we keep dipping into our inner ponds – giving and giving – we’ll eventually dry up if we don’t also take time to replenished our ‘stock’.
Author Julia Cameron says that writers draw on an inner resource of images. “This well (is) like an inner pond, one that must be kept both stocked and freely flowing.”
She says writers and artists often ask, “Why is the work drying up just when it was going so well?”
Julia responds, “Very often work dries up precisely because it was going so well. We have simply overfished our inner reservoir without having taken the time and care to consciously restock our storehouse.”
So how do we restock our inner wells? Julia uses what she calls the Artist Date. “An Artist Date is a once-weekly solitary expedition to something festive that interests us.” (e.g. a visit to a museum, quilting shop, pet store, kid’s toy store, a card shop…a place that lets you experience lots of sensory images for you.)
When things get flat and grey, visit your favourite greenhouse or floral shop. That’s one place I love to poke around—the smells, colors and displays always rejuvenate me. Makes my life feel beautiful again.
The next time you feel overfished ... before is even better ... heed Julia’s advice and take yourself on an Artist’s Date. Maybe even go fishing with your Dad or someone near to you next Father’s Day.
© by Brenda C Leyland
