I have a new video for you to watch. I had a plan for today's video. I've been working on my attention span, and one of ways I'm trying harder is doing crosswords again. So I scripted a video about how word puzzles help me focus my chaotic brain. I even have a great thumbnail idea that I won't spoil yet.

But then last Thursday, I found myself ahead of schedule. My Thursday video was done and already live. My Tuesday video was filmed and just needed editing. And the sun was shining.

So I caught the first bus out of town to see where it took me.

The very first video that I made for YouTube was about morning pages, Julia Cameron's practice from her book The Artist's Way. A lot of people talk about morning pages—not a lot of people talk about the rest of the practice. The second part is the artist date.

Morning pages is daily; the artist date is a weekly practice. One day a week, take yourself out and just do something fun. Do something that feeds your creativity. Most people, when they hear artist date, they think going to a museum, an art gallery, the library, but just going outside can be a creative practice, too.

The artist date is about seeing something new. Discover a new piece of art, see a play, go to the movies. It could also be exploring a new part of your town, walking down a street that you usually don't walk, taking a new route home after work.

The artist date is about discovery, but there's also so much value in seeing something familiar in a new way. Go to a place that you know, but during a different season. Find a little corner of your neighbourhood that's been redeveloped, try a new café. The artist date is about keeping your eyes open, seeing the place where you live but seeing it differently.

But the most important part of the artist date is giving yourself permission to just be, to just do. To indulge yourself. Do the thing that you've never made the time for. You don't have to travel very far (I took two buses but it was less than an hour). You don't have to spend any money (I did get an ice coffee).

You have to ask yourself, "What do I need right now to be a creative person?" and then here's the most important part: you have to listen. Listen to yourself, and give yourself permission to indulge yourself. You didn't have to earn this time; you just get it.

You have to be kind to yourself and to the creative person that you are. Look for art everywhere, and you'll find it. The artist date is really about keeping yourself open to that possibility.

If you have a day off coming up, and the weather isn't too unbearable where you are, get outside and look for some art. And then tell us all about it.

💚 Jess