I Said Yes

Elizabeth Gilbert began Big Magic with a question:

Q: What is creativity?

A: The relationship between a human

     being and the mysteries of inspiration. 

Every chapter is an attempt to articulate the mysterious process that occurs in me, and you,  every day. Every day my relationship with creativity develops in ways that astound me.

When I decided ten years ago to devote my life to writing, I had no idea how sacred, and not sacred, the process would be. The magic of inspiration and the relationship I have with it is the child in me. The child points and stares and looks at things with wonder. Ideas are sparked and I write with joy. This is the sacred.

Then, comes the hard work, the crafting, the editing, the editing, the editing, and more editing. Sometimes the child in me wants to throw a mighty tantrum and scream, ‘This is not what I signed up for!’ Then it doesn’t feel sacred, it feels like plain hard work!

But, it is what I signed up for. It’s what I said yes to way back when I was ten years old and dreamt of becoming a writer.

Elizabeth Gilbert asked,  ‘Do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are within you?’

I replied yes and then stubbornly went on with the business of bringing forth those treasures.

I said yes to a relationship with the mysteries of inspiration.

I said yes to cooperating fully, humbly, and joyfully with inspiration.

I said yes to writing myself permission slips to do whatever brings me to life. To follow my own fascinations, obsessions, compulsions … to creating whatever causes a revolution in my heart.

I said yes to persistence. To try and try and try and feel like there’s no choice but to keep going because I love it so much—despite the  hard work, disappointments, feelings of inadequacy.

I said yes to trusting my curiosity and that it will take me where I need to go.

I said yes to God and accepted the accidental grace that finds its way to me when I follow my curiosity.

Now your job becomes both simple and difficult. You have officially entered into a contract with inspiration, and you must try to see it through, all the way to its impossible-to-predict outcome. Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert ends her book with: The treasures that are hidden within you are hoping you will say yes. 

Big Magic QUESTION

Have you said yes to a relationship with the mysteries of inspiration?

Catch Up on our previous posts here.