Haunting of the Undone

I've been moving at a pretty good creative clip all month, but this week I felt like I was spinning in place instead of zooming forward. A sign.

Yep, I recognize the sign of too much crap in the mental in-box. While my head is on its grand creative journey, phone calls and appointments go unmade. Errands are put off to another day.

My theory is that all these undone earthy basics create anxiety that interfere with the higher aims. Kind of a mental-spiritual constipation. The Haunting of the Undone.

A couple months ago I started a system of organizing myself my writing everything down on index cards. I got past the compulsive stage, but still have the cards piling up within their loose categories. Now, when I get that drifting-in-circles feeling, I know exactly why. The list of things to procrastinate over is ready-made.

The other innovation that the "Getting Things Done" doctrine requires is a physical in-box: where you throw all unprocessed bills, catalogues, memos-to-self, clippings, new insurance forms, etc. Mine was overflowing, but at least all the unprocessed crap was in one basket -- not spread all over my studio embedded in mystery piles.

So yadda-yadda-yadda, yesterday I put aside all my glorious higher endeavors (including yoga and meditation), and spent most of the day Taking Care of Business.

By 3 o'clock I was ready for my glass of wine and made the mistake of turning on the TV to marathon reruns of Kathy Griffin's "Straight to Hell" stand-up series on Bravo. Then Pat D. called me from her Georgia hunting cabin, where she was taking a break from her video-making to have a beer. Good yakkety-yak.

Last night we watched a documentary about Gustav Klimt, one of my favorite artists. Inspiring. Hope I'm back on the art path today -- though the marathon of "Project Runway" reruns starts on Bravo at 11 AM!

11.30.07

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