In my journal today (April 13, 2023), I wrote “it’s not about me “capturing ideas." THEY are harnessing me and not letting go.” That made me think of Liz Gilbert writing in BIG MAGIC about how ideas are living entities. I told myself it’s time to dig out my copy of Big Magic and refresh my head and heart about going deeper into partnership with my ideas.
And as Spirit works, today my Facebook memories pop up with a post from April 13, 2017, where I had distilled BIG MAGIC into 500 words. Here was my refresher handed to me, without me lifting a finger or going to my bookcase. Thanks, Universe.
This is what I wrote exactly six years ago. That I needed today.
“Here is my CliffNotes version of BIG MAGIC, the sentences I had highlighted as I read. 270 pages are reduced to 500 words. What I have grouped together in each paragraph here may have been pages or chapters apart. Separate sentences strung together like this makes a compelling read, and I hope, gives you encouragement.
Live a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity. A creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life.
Creativity asks you to enter realms of uncertain income. The less I fight my fear, the less it fights back. If I can relax, fear relaxes too.
The creative process is both magical and magic.Ideas are a disembodied, energetic life-form. Ideas are driven by a single impulse: to be made manifest.
Cooperate fully, humbly and joyfully with inspiration. You are neither a slave to inspiration nor its master, but something far more interesting – its partner. You can thank creativity for having blessed you with a charmed, interesting, passionate existence.
Be ready. Keep your eyes open. Listen. Follow your curiosity. Ask questions. Sniff around. Remain open. Trust in the miraculous truth that new and marvelous ideas are looking for human collaborators every single day. My most outlandish beliefs about creativity might actually be true.
I work steadily and I always thank the process. This is how I want to spend my life. I am going to spend as much time as I can creating delightful things out of my existence, because that’s what brings me awake and that’s what brings me alive. (Trust me, your soul has been waiting for you to wake up to your own existence for years.)
You are not required to save the world with your creativity. Just say what you want to say, and say it with all your heart. Share whatever you are driven to share. Create whatever causes a revolution in your heart. The rest of it will take care of itself.
Push yourself deeper into the world, to explore more bravely. Or go more deeply and bravely inward. Stop complaining. Try saying this: “I enjoy my creativity.” Never delude yourself into believing that you require someone else’s blessing (or even their comprehension) in order to make your own creative work. And always remember that other people’s judgments about you are none of your business.
The essential ingredients for creativity remain exactly the same for everybody: courage, enchantment, permission, persistence, trust. Creative living is always possible.
“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you don’t bring forth what is within you, what you don’t bring forth will destroy you.” – Gospel of Thomas
Pursue whatever fascinates you and brings you to life. Do what you love to do, and do it with both seriousness and lightness. The work wants to be made and wants to be made through you.
Curiosity is the secret. Curiosity is the truth and the way of creative living. My soul desires only one thing: wonder. As long as I’m still moving in that direction – toward wonder – then I know I will always be fine in my soul.”
Thanks, Liz. Thanks, Facebook memories. And a huge thanks to IDEAS and CREATIVITY and CURIOSITY and WONDER. Thanks, Universe. You always deliver right on time.
Much love,
Kelly
"Ideas have no material body, but they do have consciousness, and they most certainly have will. Ideas are driven by a single impulse: to be made manifest. And the only way an idea can be made manifest in our world is through collaboration with a human partner. It is only through a human’s efforts that an idea can be escorted out of the ether and into the realm of the actual.”
~Elizabeth Gilbert

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