Morning Pages...

I told you that I was reading "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron on another blog post a week or so ago...Yeah, still not finished with it.  But, we ARE using a tool from it called "morning pages", much to my darling childrens' disappointment.

The purpose of the morning pages is not new, especially to a journaling sort of person.  It's a rough get-it-down-on-paper-and-out-of-your-head-so-you-can-move-on sort of journal.  One of the interesting things about it for me is the rules. 

"Every morning, set your clock a half-hour early; get up and write
three pages of longhand, stream-of-consciousness morning writing. 
Do not reread these pages or allow anyone else to read them. 
Ideally, stick these pages in a large manila envelope or hide them somewhere. 
Welcome to the morning pages.  They will change you."

I've been doing them since the beginning of June and I'll tell you, it really DOES help with ideas because you aren't supposed to stop...So, you get to this place where you are SO VERY done doing it...you REALLY REALLY don't have anything else to write and you are ready to put them away.  But you CAN'T because of the three page rule, you are STUCK.  So, you push through and sure enough, there are still ideas in there, irritations or problems that you still need to lay down or just lists of things that you don't want to forget.  And you get to that last flourish of your pen humming "We are the Champions" because you did it...it was hard...and you didn't WANNA...and you did it.  In the end, you don't just have a few extra ideas, you have that tremendous feeling of having won.  Granted, it's words on a page...but hey, a win is a win.

One of the "problems" that I'd like to overcome this year, is my kids' reluctance to write any but the most basic information on paper.  They want to email, text or whatever.  They have not really been allowed to do much of that in any form but especially not in school.  And yet, they persist in asking. 

I started morning pages with them, more as a good discipline than a WRITING assignment.  They are allowed to fill up their pages with "I don't know what to say" or any other repetitive sentence but not single letters or pictures and I've changed the number of pages for each of them into a more appropriate amount.  But I want them to get into the habit of writing down thoughts, even if they never do it beyond the time I require it.

I do "look" at their pages, just to make sure they are actually doing them.  They date the first page and then I glance to make sure that they've actually filled in the required space and not just scribbled or drawn pictures or any of a number of things they have tried to DECEIVE me!!!  (I'm becoming very wise, daily.) But I do my best NOT to read them and if I accidently pick up a word or two, I strike it from my memory as best I can.  They do their pages in a spiral just for ease of storage, but that I'm aware of, they don't look back, except to add smiley faces and an odd picture of a cow, but that's not really READING them.  So far only one kid has asked me to read her pages, but it should be mentioned that she's already one of those artsy fartsy writer types, so it was kind of to be expected.

By and large they detest this exercise.  I present you a photograph collection called "We HATE Morning Pages" with an alternative title, "Our Mom Stinks and We Are Not Now, Nor Will We Ever Be Writers So She Should Just Get A Grip"...possibly that one will prove too cumbersome, no matter the truth in the advertising...

 

Monkey Face hates morning pages so much she is

USUALLY trying to write vertically, hanging upside down. 
Although I would NEVER read them, I'm very thankful
that her vocabulary has not caught up with
the malice she feels about this assignment. 
"Poopy-head" is a much safer way to vent, in my opinion.

 

 

 

Bear doesn't ACTUALLY hate morning pages, she

has chosen to use this as her outlet to write either the next

great American novel or a fabulous play.

We often sing, "One of these things is not like the others

One of these things just isn't the same" about Bear.

 

Beanie puts up with her morning pages but often

writes, "I HATE morning pages" and "This is lame"

within the pages themselves.  I do not know this, of course,

because the sanctity of the morning pages means

that I don't read them...or ever remember if I did...

Nor would I ever immortalize them on a public blog...ehem.

She really dislikes being around any of us while she's

writing them...thinks we're too happy...
and stupid...and she prefers the dog.

I don't really care if they like them or not.  Much as I do not care if they like broccoli.  I'm the boss, so they have to write them anyway.  (That sounds pretty good, doesn't it?  I sound like a toughie, right?  I'm working on it but they have really blue eyes and really pretty eyelashes and sometimes I have to yell stuff like, "I'M THE MOM, I DON'T CARE IF YOU LIKE IT" over my shoulder to maintain my backbone.)

 

Besides, I've noticed that they are starting to just accept them as their fate, aside from Monkey Face and her steely will.  There are some interesting things coming out of them.  Right now, I figure, it can't hurt.  If they can learn to use them as an outlet, even better.  But at the very least it will strengthen their fingers for when they are writing all the assignments that I DO get to read.  I'm very excited.

See ya around...