Big Magic: Favourite Quotes from Liz Gilbert

I was writing this book recommendation for Big Magic to a fellow artist and writer and thought I'd include it in a blogpost for my sorely neglected blog.  So, here you go:

The treasures that are hidden inside you are hoping you will say YES. She tells a wonderful story about how she got an idea and when she lost interest, it found Ann Patchett. The similarities between the plot lines were astounding!

Whatever you do, try not to dwell too long on your failures. You don't need to conduct autopsies on your disasters.   I think the point is not to wallow and flog oneself.  Take off the hair shirt and do something else.

Done is better than good. (Liz's mother)  VASTLY different from Mum: 

If you cahn't do a proper job, don't do it all! 

So I repeat Liz's mother to myself whenever I think that I don't have time to do something or all the right materials, etc. etc.. Do something; it doesn't need to be perfect or up to "Queen Anne" standards. Growing up, "Proper job" meant perfect, and her way, and it never was. Coupled with the criticism from teachers, it paralyzed me into procrastination for important projects. As an adult, I create deadlines for myself so that I feel a sense of urgency and that it's more important to get it done than to be perfect. It's prolly why I'm such a planner nut. 

Conversely--and in addition:  You might think it's procrastination, but--with the right intention--it isn't; it's motion. And any motion whatsoever beats inertia, because inspiration will always be drawn to motion.  

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

People don't do this kind of thing because they have all kinds of extra time and energy for it; they do this kind of thing because their creativity matters to them enough that they are willing to make all kinds of extra sacrifices for it.

Anyhow, what else are you going to do with your time here on earth--NOT make things? Not do interesting stuff? Not follow your love and curiosity?

OK, off to create . . . something.   :-)

Eat, Pray, Love

So Mum & I went to see Julia Roberts in Eat, Pray, Love last weekend.  When I first moved out to the wilderness, more than one person suggested I read that book. And then chiro-sister got it for me for Xmas. Anyway, you know that line from Legally Blonde, where Reese Witherspoon dresses up for her first day of law school? And she says, "I totally look the part."  Well . . .

You can see Mum's reflection to the left. :-)

I'm wearing my Indian prayer beads and holding the Eat, Pray, Love bible in my hands. I walked in to the theatre, and Ticket Gal says, "Eat, Pray, Love?"  :-)  The movie was pretty authentic to the book, and the cinemetography is gorgeous. Mum & I were both hungry half-way thru Italy and starving at the end of Bali. [Let me splain: She spends 4 months in 3 countries; she eats in Italy, prays in India, and loves in Bali]. One of the lines from the movie that struck me was: You Americans know all about entertainment, but you don't know about pleasure.  Hmmm . . . .anyway, if you go, don't drag a guy to see it. It's definitely a chick flick. Unless he's a sensitive-new-age-burkenstock-wearing-guy. Just sayin'. And take something yummy with you so that you'll have something to eat while you're drooling over Julia's pasta.Preferably something sweet and decadent. And then go out to dinner to a nice little Italian place afterwards. No really, go after--it doesn't matter if you just ate yourself into a Thanksgiving food coma beforehand, trust me on this: you'll be hungry!

If you're a fan of the book, you'll enjoy the movie. I'll leave you with this quote from the book that ends the movie:
I've come to believe that there exists in the universe something I call "The Physics of the Quest"--a force of nature governed by laws as real as the laws of gravity or momentum. And the rule of Quest Physics maybe goes like this: "If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting (which can be anything from your house to your bitter old resentments) and set out on a truth-seeking journey (either externally or internally), and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared--most of all--to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourself . . . . then truth will not be withheld from you."

Divine Midlife Chrysalis

What the caterpillar calls death, the master calls a butterfly.

Death is the greatest illusion AND the most real. It has been almost a month since Remi’s passing, and things are back to normal. Except they’re not. I am in uncharted territory and having to create a new normal. I am at a loss as to how to do that. I realize I am grieving more than Remi, but all the other little deaths from this past year: my home, my marriage, my idea of who I thought I was. All dead.

I go between wanting to DO something—anything, to wanting to be conscious about creating the next part of my life. “It shouldn’t be this way,” is a sure recipe for discomfort and it creates an illusion that things will be better IF:

If fill-in-the-blank didn’t die
If I had a fill-in-the-blank relationship with so-and-so
If I had a such-and-such job
If I lived wherever with whomever doing whatever
If I were still a caterpillar

This is where I am now. When I remember to accept that, I find peace. The struggle comes when I’m focused on how I think things ought to be or lament that they are not what they were.

Divine Midlife Chrysalis is the title of the book I’m not writing. I think it’s more of a chapter, now. It is what I have been experiencing over the past year. There are all sorts of cute euphemisms coming out to replace “midlife crisis;” Marianne Williamson says it’s a process, Tony Robbins says celebration. I think it’s a bit…messier. If you were to open up a cocoon, the caterpillar is no longer recognizable as a caterpillar. Nor is it in its future form as butterfly. It’s evolving from where it was to where it’s going. There is no going back, and there is no speeding up of the process. Nature has its own schedule. There was a farmer once who watched a butterfly emerging from its cocoon and decided to help it out by cutting the sides of the cocoon. The butterfly emerged but couldn’t fly and died. It was the work of breaking out of the cocoon that brought energy to its legs and wings and gave it the strength it needed to fly.

This is my Eat, Pray, Love version without having to leave the country. I have been so blessed to be out here in nature. The birds are singing and the mountains are greening and there is this lovely trilling coming from the trees down by the river. Tree frogs, perhaps? I will consult with Fisherman Willie. In the meantime, life goes on . . . .

Quote-of-the-Day

I’ve come to believe that there exists in the universe something I call “The Physics of The Quest” – a force of nature governed by laws as real as the laws gravity or momentum. And the rule of Quest Physics maybe goes like this: “If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting (which can be anything from your house to your bitter old resentments) and set out on a truth-seeking journey (either externally or internally), and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared – most of all – to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourself….then truth will not be withheld from you.” ~Elizabeth Gilbert