The inspiration for this post (or really, to start blogging again), is from a book called Big Magic and my beautiful, magical porch in my new house. S/O to Elizabeth Gilbert for the inspo and to MN summer nights for being perfect. This is what I have learned from this book so far:
Living creatively means being motivated by curiosity rather than fear.
Living creatively doesn’t have to be for anyone but me. I can write because I enjoy it and that’s that. If someone else likes my art along the way, bonus!
I do not need anyones permission to be creative. I can define what creativity means to me and I don’t need to wait for someone else to give me the green light.
I can define myself and my creative pursuits instead of wishing they were true. I am a writer, I am a photographer, I am a cook, I am healthy, or a painter, dancer, wood worker or whatever you are or want to create. When I say those words out loud or even on paper, they begin to take shape and I become what I say I am.
My creative pursuits do not have to be motivated by money. They are and can be motivated purely by the soul filling, magical, cookie dough finger licking satisfaction that comes from taking what is in my head and making sense of the world around me with words.
So there. Here I am trying to do this thing called life and figure out – what is it exactly that I want to do again? Maybe I don’t need to have an answer. Maybe I can just do what feels right, go where the flow of ideas takes me, and make enough money to get by. And along the way, find what makes me feel most alive and full and then do as much of that as possible.
Do you have the courage to live creatively?