My dear Ruthi,

I started the day reading more Julia Cameron. She spoke of a great black crow flapping, of Poe and the Raven, and the window of imagination. 

So fitting that the day would end with me and the twins chasing crows.  Several hundred of them.

She wrote, “As artists, it serves us to consciously find windows to the world of wonder – we must locate places that open the trapdoor in our imagination and allow the breath of greater worlds to enter our too-clausterophobic lives.” She said we all need a window for the imagination – things that give imagination room to breathe.

Isn’t that what Joy is? That breath? 

Sometimes an inhalation. Joy in motion. 

Sometimes an exhalation. Joy in stillness.

She spoke of rest, 
then used examples coupled with words like:

climbing
beyond time
intricate
woven
explorer
brightly flaming colours
transported
multifloored
whizzed
thrill
light up

and confused me by ending with this striking line:

“My mother, Dorothy, when overwrought, would retreat to the piano and play the Blue Danube waltz until her soul settled back into three-quarter time.”

It seemed that in one breath she was speaking of something akin to Artists’ dates – those exhilarating expeditions we seek to fill up the reservoir. But then suddenly, in her next breath, she was talking of a calming action to ground and centre us in peaceful rhythm. 

Joy in motion. Then. Joy in stillness.

That TED talk I referenced seems to miss this point. It’s not only round things, pops of bright colour, symmetrical shapes, abundance and multiplicity, feelings of lightness or elevation. 

Sometimes it’s drinking in the simple and plain, 

that makes our spirit 
skip 
with joy.

With love,

Jules

[and speaking of windows for the imagination, this blows my mind… ]