Day 5: Snow Day
Song of the Day: The Man I’d Rather Be
Activity of the Day: Artist Date
I’m glad you got some rest after our adventure yesterday. I slept like a rock!
Out the cabin windows, there’s a gentle whiteness covering the earth.
“SNOW!!!” we all bellow.
Strange how we say each other’s names
When we’re speaking to ourselves
– The Man I’d Rather Be
Day 5: Snow Day
“Man, the weather changes fast up in these mountains.”
We pull on all of our warmest layers and rush out into the silent forest, flopping onto the soft powder and laughing as we get hit by snowballs.
Laying on your back, you reach out your arms to make a snow angel. You stick out your tongue and feel a thick white flake kiss you before it melts.
Wow, it’s good to be alive.
“Man, the weather changes fast up in these mountains.”
We pull on all of our warmest layers and rush out into the silent forest, flopping onto the soft powder and laughing as we get hit by snowballs.
Laying on your back, you reach out your arms to make a snow angel. You stick out your tongue and feel a thick white flake kiss you before it melts.
Wow, it’s good to be alive.
the man I'd Rather be
Sometimes when we’re talking to those we love, we say things we don’t mean.
Often it’s because we’re talking to someone from our past or present… or to the person we’d rather be.
However you listen to music, you should be covered here…
Whether you like to stream with Soundcloud, download high quality from Google Drive, or watch on YouTube, you have it!
However you listen to music, you should be covered here…
Whether you like to stream with Soundcloud, download high quality from Google Drive, or watch on YouTube, you have it!
the story of the man I'd rather be
This is the part where you get to learn the story behind The Man I’d Rather Be, its songwriting and lyrics, and more…
the man i'd rather be Lyrics
Stop, I’m not waiting anymore
You’ve had your say, now it’s mine
Drop every point that’s keeping score
Can’t you see we’re on the same side?
Are you talking to me
Or straight through me
Or to someone else?
Your father
Or your mother
Or your boyfriend
Or the man I’d rather be?
Strange how we say each other’s names
When we’re speaking to ourselves
Change is for the clinically insane
I’ll stay the same, while locked in my own hell
Am I talking to you
Or straight through you
Or to someone else?
My father
Or step mother
Or ex-girlfriend
Or the man I’d rather be?
The ocean is made up of tears of happy lovers
We’re not the first, nor the last to blame each other
We can drown or float away
We can dive down further but we cannot stay
Strange how we say each other’s names
When we’re speaking to ourselves
Behind the scenes
This is the part where you get a peek into the studio creation process of the song…
Activity of the day
Artist Date
This one happens outside of this book. This week, you’re going to take yourself on an Artist’s Date.
The first Artist’s Date I went on was to a park I had seen but never entered. I would always be biking along the Hudson River, and could see on the other side of the highway a set of rings hanging from long chains. Just like you see on a playground, but gigantic and made for adults. People would swing from ring to ring over the yellow sand in long, joyous arcs. Every time, I thought it looked like so much fun, but I never made the time for myself. I was just too busy.
When I picked up The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, she tasked me with an Artist Date. I finally went to that park with my journal and spent hours swinging from the chains until my hands were blistered. I sat in the warm sand and wrote for a while after that.
This week, you’ll take yourself on an Artist Date. Think of what’s fun for you. An art museum? Trip to the beach? A long walk in the park with a notebook and some colored pencils? Think of what excites the child in you.
It doesn’t have to cost money, and it shouldn’t be from some sense of duty (eg. reading some dense philosophical book to better yourself, blah blah blah – unless that excites you). It should just be fun. You might find yourself on the beach, drawing a picture in the sand, or on a hike in the woods without a map, taking wrong turns on purpose.
This will be just an hour or two, planned in advance, and protected from all interruptions, by yourself. Important thing pops up? You’re busy. Someone expresses interest in joining? Nope.
There is always time for the things we say must be done. And there are always things that we let slip by. So now, you’re going to treat your creative soul as something that must be nurtured. Let something else slide this time. It’ll be ok. Heck, you’ll likely find yourself feeling so alive that you do your other obligations faster anyway. Time may be linear to the clock, but it’s not linear to our experience.
You have much more time than you believe. Always. Especially when you nourish the child in yourself.
On a blank page, write down a handful of cool things you could do alone. You don’t have to fill the page. Just come up with some options. Then pick a day this week, put it in your calendar, and do it.
Just for you. . .
We’ve laughed. We’ve bonded. We’ve really formed a close-knit group of friends.
And so I wanted to do something special to commemorate this journey…
I want to make sure that you know that I appreciate you.
That is why I’ve made something way cooler than a CD for you…
