History Part One

"The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron has been around since 1992.  It came into my hands in 1994. I was at work on a Saturday at The Boise Weekly and I was in the alley beside our offices on 8th Street on my way to the post office box, when a woman came up to me and said that she knew me.  I didn't remember her, but apparently we had both been at an art opening at Richard Reyes' studio in the basement of the Belgravia building.  But that wasn't the point, I don't even remember her name, but she was so excited about a book she'd just found and she told me that I should get it.  Here she was in a downtown alley raving about a book to someone she barely knew.  I had recently been introduced to the term synchronicity which I wasn't sure I completely believed in, but when something happens like what had just happened in the alley, you have to pay attention.  I did.  After I finished up, I went to a book store in the strip mall on 17th and State. I think it was called Coyote and Twain and it was back in the days before the big box book stores took over Boise.  And I asked for the book and they found it, I looked through it and bought it.  Just looking through it, I was really excited and I could see why the woman in the alley had been so enthusiastic.  The author of "The Artist's Way," Julia Cameron, believed that everyone was creative and her book was out to help all of us reclaim our creativity.  Wow. And it wasn't just a lot of ideas. There were exercises to do. I had read a couple of self help books before, and while I had liked their ideas, they never gave me a program on how to implement any of the ideas, so they were all theory and no concrete course of action.  This one was different and I couldn't wait to get started.