“One of the oldest and most generous tricks that the universe plays on human beings is to bury strange jewels within us all, then stand back to see if we can ever find them.” Elizabeth Gilbert.
I just love that quote. And the idea there are ‘strange jewels’ lurking within us all. A guitar riff, a sculpture, a pencil drawing of your favorite face.
I just read Elizabeth Gilbert’s ‘Big Magic – Creative Living Beyond Fear’ and I’m all jazzed up to live my creative life fearlessly. (Thank you Liz! Can I call you Liz? No? Ah…ok.)
If you don’t rush out to buy it today, here are the top three creative living tips that are making a difference in my life right now.
- Done is better than good. (I’ve increased what I submit by like 50% on these 5 words alone.) Nothing I wrote was ever ‘right yet’. It wasn’t perfect. New flash to me….it doesn’t have to be. And done and out there is better than stuck in a drawer until you have time to ‘fix it’.
- Don’t pressure your creative pursuits to make you money. You support your creativity, not the other way around and everyone will be happier. Wow has this ever helped. Poor creative Ange, the only way I’d let her out is if she might make me money. Well who would want to come out and play under that kind of pressure!?
- Follow your tangents. You don’t have to follow one particular passion. BE a scuba diving, Ballerina collecting tax lawyer who paints amazing still life tomato vines on her Harley. Feel free to follow each little interest. If nothing else you’ll have a more interesting, engaged life.
So many times I read these ‘improvement’ books about improving your life and they all say, hey, just find what you’re passionate about and follow that to the pot at the end of the rainbow! Ugh. Hate that.
I have about 17 things I’m ‘passionate’ about. I’d really like to be a yoga instructing, blogging Real Estate Agent-Poet who teaches Kindergarden to under privileged kids who designs amazing outdoor garden-scapes. Why would I want to focus on just one thing!?
Now Miss Elizabeth has officially given me ‘permission’ to follow all my lovely interests down the rabbit hole. Lots of different rabbit holes. How wonderful! And none of them have to make me money. They just have to make me…happy. World. Shattering.
“But to yell at your creativity, saying, “You must earn money for me!” is sort of like yelling at a cat; it has no idea what you’re talking about, and all you’re doing is scaring it away, because you’re making really loud noises and your face looks weird when you do that.” (Miss Liz)
She cracks me up.
Anyway – so I’m letting the creative cat out of the bag – not to work for me, but to romp around playfully like a kitty should. Meow!
Angela Yeh - Fantasy Author. Dragon Enthusiast. Optimist. 