Today I woke with post-nasal drip – not pleasant after days on antibiotics. I delayed getting out of bed (see day 8), and when I did the work, I was having difficulty keeping my breath in time with the motions (see day 7). A lot of entries are going to follow this particular course, and follow it for a while. There were a couple of small insights along the way; we pick up tricks the more we do the work (see day 6)
Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. Life goes on. It’s a Monday, I’m covering some classes for a colleague today; I have thank you notes to send out to the people who attended Saturday’s event; an article to write for the paper about it; and some photos to process.
I’ve spent some of my art-time for the last few days ruling pages: doing the starcut diagram, and then lightly laying out ruler lines for text with pencil, in a small notebook with some beautiful papers. Yesterday, I inked the first page. And the ink – the stuff I use all the time, the stuff that’s perfect for this sort of paper, normally – bled right through. Not one, not two, but three sheets of paper. Did some tests with other markers, other penn, in out-of-the-way places in the notebook. Bleed-through. bleed through. Bleed through. It’s very pretty paper – utterly inadequate to what I wanted to do.
There’s a tendency to regard some materials as unsuited to the work. I might have thrown the book across the room in frustration. But no — I put it back onto the art-supply shelf. It will get used eventually, just not at this time, not for this intended purpose. We get up, we do the work, we breathe, we raise the energy and we create again.
