high anxiety

The anxiety is unbearable.  I only hope it lasts forever.

- Oscar Wilde

really??  I have to pay for it??

It is time for the anxiety post.  I have been holding on to this image for about a year now.  I saw it in the window of an antique shop in North Adams, MA while visiting colleges ( a slight anxiety provoking activity) with my son last April.  I kind of think it was tailor made for me....but I didn't buy it.  At the time I thought that might have been bad luck, darkly prophetic, or maybe something worse.  But here it is, anxiety is creeping up on me again and I've begun reading a book with a whole section of the introduction devoted to anxiety and the creative process.  It is called 'Fearless Creating' by Eric Maisel.  I know, I know it sounds so touchy feel-y, but I think he is a really great writer- no fluff.  AND,  he touts that anxiety is both a necessary and integral component in all stages of creative work! phew!

Here is just a bit of what he says, "...I mean to describe the kinds of anxieties that attend each stage of the creative process.  In large measure these are anxieties that you should experience because, while anxiety is the greatest impediment to aliveness, in order to create you must invite anxieties into your life and live anxiously.   For every miracle of creation, you will experience a week of anxious brooding.  You will only earn fine camera angles, lucky brush strokes, and brilliant poetic images by risking anxiety and living with anxiety."

So, I believe I have all the necessary supplies at hand to forge ahead, fill a museum and have  my monograph printed.....if only it were that easy.