Once upon a time, I fancied myself a weather man. I had my own weekly segment called “The LPAC Weather Report”. In that video segment, I would comment on several topics I thought were connected - traditional weather, earthquakes, solar activity, cosmic rays, volcanoes, general astronomy. Most of my days back then were focused on finding material to report, especially coincidences between various phenomena.

I began to experience almost a spiritual connection with the world around me, like I was in direct communication with nature.

For example, in August 2011 I did an episode on earthquake forecasting and solar flares. While composing the script, I suddenly heard something like a large garbage truck outside the office. The thing was so loud and rumbly that the building shook a little bit. But then it struck me - I jumped up and ran outside to find the parking lot empty. We’d just been hit by a real earthquake, in northern Virginia!

How did the World know what I was working on!?

Needless to say, my script for the upcoming episode got a lot more spicy after that.

Those days are long gone, but recently I experienced a yearning for that childlike, immediate, intimate connection I’d felt back then.

A few weeks ago, I picked up a book called “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. This was the original source for the concept of Morning Pages, about which I’ve written in the past, but I’d never actually read the book.

The simple act of reading this wonderful book struck me with the same feelings I’d longed for. Her descriptions of how to rekindle creativity have allowed me to both believe … but blah blah.

Her description of how to rekindle creativity has been a bang-on reflection of what I felt back in the Weather Man days. That description has led me to a much more clear understanding of what I felt, and allowed me to knit together some other things I’ve learned along the way.

This article is about that!

The Little Voice

Most of my thoughts – and probably yours too – are in the form of “I have to do X,” or “You look like Y,” or, even more likely, “You idiot! You forgot to do Z!”

That’s the typical voice of your inner monologue. We all have it, and to varying degrees, we all recognize it. It’s usually loud, and overbearing, and might sound just like one of your parents. Most of the time, for me, it’s the voice of the monster, the Inner Critic.

Sometimes, though, a much quieter, kinder voice speaks up. I find that smaller voice tends to get steamrolled by the inner monologue. When I recognize and listen to that whisper, and follow its advice, I tend to be led in a much better direction.

For our purposes here, this quieter voice will be henceforth called the Little Voice.

For example, the little voice is usually first recognized as such when you hear someone tell a lie. The words a person says, themselves, don’t betray the lie, but something does. A little feeling hits you as you listen, and you know “this schmuck is lying to me!” That’s the Little Voice!

The little voice is my own construct. Below, I’ll describe a few of what I believe are descriptions of the same phenomenon, but constructed in different ways. We’ll start with Cameron’s

The Voice of God

Cameron establishes early on the belief, which is necessary for any creative recovery, that not only is Man designed to be creative and do creative acts, but that this creativity flows from God.

God wants us to be creative.

She plays down to some extent the idea that you, also, must believe in God in order to be creative. But, to Cameron, creativity lights into our minds almost like a gift given from a higher power. We are the conduit of creativity.

Her book is filled with exercises designed to help us recognize and coax that connection. It’s this connection that represents itself as a quiet little voice.

Reading Cameron’s book, I was reminded of another metaphor for the same idea.

Geometry

Back in the weatherman days, I worked for Lyndon LaRouche. LaRouche was an economist and political leader who wrote way more than any mortal has a right to write.

One of his books we treated like a textbook – “So, You Wish to Learn All About Economics…”. I personally taught several class series on this book. One of the chapters that always stuck out as cute to me, was on the source of economic progress.

LaRouche first presents the common view of where economic value comes from. It comes from the Horny Hand of Labor, according to Karl Marx! It comes from little creatures under the floorboards, according to Jeremy Bentham. It comes directly from the landlord’s land, according to the physiocrat François Quesnay. It comes from the Invisible hand of the Market, according to Adam Smith.

Then, in contrast to these quasi-occult beliefs, LaRouche presents his own view. He sets up the image of a room with a closed door. There’s someone inside that room you never see, but you can send notes back and forth by sliding them under the door. The messages you get out of the room tend to be a little cryptic, but sometimes they answer a problem you’re trying to solve. After some trial and error, you find that the guy behind the door is especially talented at geometry

The Artist’s Way

When I was a kid, I read a book called “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”, by Betty Edwards. I was already interested in learning to draw, and well this looked like a good book on the subject.

The book changed my life.

While trying to figure out how to establish that mind-nature connection again, I figured I’d read the book again. I went to the library, found the latest edition on the shelf, and saw another book on the shelf that tugged at my curiosity – “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. I talked about Cameron and her book in a past article, on writing Morning Pages. This book introduced the practice to the world audience, and I’d never given Cameron the due respect to actually read the book. So I checked it out too.

Well, now I can say The Artist’s Way has changed my life as well.