One exercise in The Artist’s Way asks: “If you had five other lives to live, what would you do in each of them?” It’s an exercise in imagination, but also a way to reconsider if what we’re doing is what we’re supposed to be doing, and if there are any bits of these imagined alter-existences that we can integrate into our here-and-now. So here it goes:
- A horror writer with an office upstairs in a converted dairy barn. The office window looks toward the main house and a long, winding driveway. There’s a small pond off to the right of the barn window, and I gaze out at it from my desk while plotting. (This is obviously one I’ve thought about a lot.)
- A medieval archaeologist working on a dig somewhere in Northern England. The mornings are cold and misty, with a thick dew that creeps into my boots on the way from my camper van to the site each morning. I sing on my way to work. It’s hard, with long stretches of boredom, but we’re going to find something, I know it. My colleagues are like family.
- A backup singer for a rockstar on tour around the world. The show is glamorous, but more about musical proficiency than dancing and pyrotechnics.
- A National Park Service ranger skilled at search and rescue, preferably working in the Grand Canyon (but hell, anywhere out West would be awesome).
- A shaman and medium helping the living and the dead through music and nature. I live a mostly solitary life, deep in the woods and up a mountain, with my dogs, a cat, and a magpie that was once convalescing but decided never to leave. People in need always find me, though. I have a healthy fear of what is unknown to most, because I’ve seen so much. But I will always put myself in harm’s way to help my community. It’s my sacred duty.
Compass & Quill 
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