The third technique from Julia Cameron's book is the "Weekly Walk." As the name implies, it is a weekly walk. I know this sounds silly, but both aspects of that are important. The regularity of it all, the weekliness of it, the commitment to do this and do this in the way that she recommends is part of the commitment, and that commitment is part of what makes it a useful technique. The walk part is also critical, in that it is not the mode of transportation that we usually utilize, and is not even the mode of locomotion that we usually utilize. We are runners, we are joggers, we are bikers, we are boarders, we are skaters, but we are not as people in the twenty first century walkers. We are too fast paced and in a fast paced world, but we are not walkers. We need to walk, maybe on a park path, we need to walk, matbe through a garden, we need to walk, maybe on the outskirts of a small town, we need to walk, maybe on the back side of a golf course, but we need to walk. The conscious attempt to slow down is what this technique is about at its core. Slow slow slow slow slow. Walk walk walk walk walk. What is that expression? Run, don't walk. Well this technique tells us walk, not run.

She talks about twenty minutes being the minimum for the walk. I think that is certainly workable into my schedule. Is it too bad to work that into an exercise regiment, too? Or are we supposed to separate this and just work one on thing at a time. Does Cameron allow us to multi task? Oh, well. Cameron says that Weekly Walks hold out solutions for a variety of problems, from the emotional to the technical. She talks about emotions working their way through her, wash over her, as she engages in these walks. I wonder if I am too self aware and too task oriented to accomplish this type of result. Her talk of noticing the clouds, looking for a sense of guidance, is something I can buy. Something I can buy in someone else, that is . . . I wonder if it will work for me. I am going to take a short at these, some time soon.

W W are supposed to grant us the knowledge about what we write, how we write, and that we should write it. Again, I feel pretty comfortable with that, but maybe if I were to open myself to other ways of receiving inspiration, maybe it would be good for me. I am not one who has a very loud "muse," as it were. My muse seems to speak in the same voice that I speak to myself in. My muse is pretty much, just me, but maybe I open myself, I will hear more. Who knows? As one walks, theoretically things get worked out, one step at a time, one day at a time, one walk at a time. You walk through things, overcoming as you walk. This all sounds good, I wonder if it is true. Or to put it more charitably, I wonder if it true for me, I wonder if it will be an effective technique for me to use in my work.

This is similar to the vision quest on the Native American and the walkabout that occurs in Australia. Again, opening to the spirit is something that I can relate to, but I wonder if that can be done once a week, twenty minutes at a time. That is not the way that the Spirit moves in the way that I know the Spirit to work. But she does say that you can do this twice a week, so maybe forty minutes is enough to tap into the eternal . . . but I doubt it. But even with that aspect stripped away, the practice of the W W may have something to say for it . . . there are technical problems that can be worked out. As opposed to sleeping on it, as the cliche goes, one should walk on it, according to Cameron. Whether the problem of one of plot or one of psychology, whether it s one of characterization or one of family, whether it is one of building suspense or handling your kids, walking with the right attitude can bring resolution. It can bring peace, it can being ideas, it can bring confidence, and it can being resolution to problems. That would work for me. I hope to find all of those things, I like it. These walk will supposedly focus the thoughts and instigate breakthroughs, emotional breakthroughs, personal breakthroughs, and creative breakthroughs. I like breakthroughs, I hope to have some, I hope to have more breakthroughs. I suppose that anything that can get me closer to breakthroughs and great moments of heights, I need to go for it. There is a realm of larger thoughts and ideas out there somewhere that as an artist I would like to tap into. Speaking about this stuff reminds me of Bruce Cockburn and his "wide open sky" sort of writing and singing. Many of the things he writes about are related to this "something" that is out there that we can tie into. My writing group has an assignment that involves writing a story based on a song and I am picking a Cockburn song, so his ideas are in the forfront of my mind right now. But what he talks about in the "bright diamond sky" and being a "child of the wind" is the type of imagery that I envision in terms of taking a Writers Walk. If I can be inspired by the same things that inspre Cockburn, I am willing to walk. The key to these walks is the habit, and there is a habit of walking and talking to the great spirit and receiving from that world as you do so. I am looking forward to participating in this.