Last month I wrote two posts about BIG MAGIC: creative living beyond fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. I am a big fan of Mrs. Gilbert’s words so I categorize twenty-nine of my favorite snippets from her book into two parts (find them here: part one & part II).
This is the final part of my favorite snippets from Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert.
PART III (30-44)
trust & divinity:
30. “…to suggest that nobody made ever made valuable art unless they were in active emotional distress is not only untrue, it’s also kind of sick.“
31. “my instincts drove me in the opposite direction—toward light, toward play, toward a more trusting engagement with creativity.“
32. “I can either live a drama or I can invent a drama—but I do not have the capacity to do both at the same time.“
33. “All I can tell you for certain is that my entire life has been shaped by an early decision to reject the cult of artistic martyrdom, and instead to place my trust in the crazy notion that my work loves me as much as I love it—that it wants to play with me as much as I want to play with it—and that this source of love and play is boundless.”
34. “What I’m saying is this: If you’re going to live your life based on delusions (and you are, because we all do), then why not at least select a delusion that is helpful? Allow me to suggest one: the work wants to be made, and it wants to be made through you.”
35. “it was like one of those dream where you discover a previously unknown room in your house, and you have that expansive feeling that your life has more possibility to it than you thought it did.”
36. “…I put my trust in play, in pliancy, in trickery. Because I was willing to be light with my work, that short story became not a grave, but a doorway that I stepped through into a wonderful and bigger new life.”
37. “I keep working steadily, because I believe it is our privilege as humans to keep making things for as long as we live, and because I enjoy making things.“
38. “intersting outcomes, after all, are just awful outcomes with the volume of drama turned way down.”
39. “My soul, when I tend to it, is far more expansive and fascinating source of guidance than my ego will ever be, because my soul desire only one thing: wonder. And since creativity is my most efficient pathway to wonder I take refuge there, and it feeds my soul, and it quiets the hungry ghost—thereby saving me from the most dangerous aspect of myself.“
40. “we are all just beginners here, and we shall all die beginners.”
41. “find something to do—anything, even a different sort of creative work altogether—just to take your mind off your anxiety and pressure.“
42. “Go walk the dog, go pick up every bit of trash on the street outside your home, go walk the dog again, go bake a peach cobbler, go paint some pebbles with brightly colored bail polish and put them in a pile. You might think it’s procrastination, but—with the right intentions—it isn’t; it’s motion. And any motion whatsoever beats inertia because inspiration will always be drawn to motion.”
43. “the outcome cannot matter.“
44. “Fierce trust asks you to stand strong within this truth: you are worthy, dear one, regardless of the outcome. You will keep making your work, regardless of the outcome. You will keep sharing your work, regardless of the outcome. You were born to create, regardless of the outcome.“
I hope that you enjoyed part III of my favorite snippets from Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. For quick inspiration check out part one, courage and enchantment, and part II, permission and persistence. For lasting motivation purchase BIG MAGIC: creative living beyond fear by Elizabeth Gilbert wherever you buy your books.
Clicking on “Thank you Elizabeth Gilbert” will redirect you out of this website and into Elizabeth Gilbert’s website—it’s good practice to always check the validity of the sites you visit, and to learn about who makes the things that you consume.
a few good posts from 7daysPresent.com
deydreaming 