Chocolate Salon, Creativity and Dark Nights of the Soul

I have spent some time visiting in a place called the Dark Nights of the Soul. It is place where you know bad things are happening, you are doing what you can but you are very careful not to make a mistake.

You can handle what you've got but not one more thing. So you go to the essentials and the necessaries but you don't risk anything more. Hense, the lack of actual videoblogging here. I have good reasons but that is not the point of the post.

This is the Windows Media Video version

This is the Old Timey QuickTime Version

This is a photo slide movie of the L.A. Chocolate Salon held in Pasadena, CA. The music is from Donovan McLean called Chocolate a la naraja which I just discovered I misspelled in the video that I have already uploaded.

See! Imperfection! Jebus, I goofed. But it is ok. The world still spins. I have my blanky and my bed. It is ok. I'm not taking it down. It took three weeks to get it up without judgment.

Not that I haven't shot video. It just was more than I could handle to edit it. I had editor's block. I also had a lot of "life events" happen at the same time. So I tried to keep that title of a wonderful book by Anne Lamott, Bird, by Bird in my head.

I can write. But that comes from a different creative union in my head. Video cells said strike, writers union say things like "Hey, why is that guy walking around with a butt cheek for a back pocket?" It was the color of a light rose that had been spanked.

So I try again. In small steps. For the record, it takes as long as it takes to journey out of the Dark Nights of the Soul. Don't let anybody bully you or bum rush you out faster than you are ready to go.