Saturday, October 17, 2015

GATHER / meeting your heroes


When the universe presents you with the opportunity to meet one of your heroes, take it. I was debating whether or not I was worth $30, whether or not I wanted to drive 1.5 hours in rush hour traffic, and in the end I am so glad that I just said, "It's Liz Gilbert, get your booty in that chair". Elizabeth Gilbert has been a part of my life since 2007 when my mom first picked up a copy of Eat Pray Love and said, "I'm getting this for you, it's sounds funny and you could use a laugh". I voraciously poured over every page of that book and have since then re-read it 3 times, rediscovering and uncovering new parts of myself on different pages. This book has meant so much to me. I even got my tattoo, an outline of India, to help me remember that we can always make the leap, take risks, let go, and find ourselves again.

I've been waiting in earnest for Liz's new book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear  for a while now. I listened to every episode of her podcast, Magic Lessons, and discovered, while I had only experienced Liz through the written page, her voice over the air waves was light, passion-fueled, oozing with compassion and love, and really just plain lovely. I couldn't wait to meet her. Sometimes I know meeting your heroes can be a let down, sometimes we wish we hadn't met them so they can burn brightly in our minds as those people we imagined them to be. But let me tell you, if you ever get a chance to see Liz in person, JUST DO IT. She will light you up, leave you inspired, and darling, she will show you how much she truly loves those around her. 

It was such a pleasure to listen to her read the opening chapters of Big Magic and get a glimpse into her internal dialogue with creativity and fear as she tackled bringing this book into existence. The night ending with Liz laughing about her favorite words: fuck and lovely, and laughing as the rest of the evening was filled with expletives from everyone. Liz also shared with us her unabashed love for karaoke, Liz and her friends go to a country bar in their small town every week to work out their demons, struggles, joys, and pain through a microphone at the top of their lungs; so naturally, we all sang out the evening with John Denver's"Country Road".

 I just dove in, but here are my big ah ha moments from just the few opening chapters: 
  1. Creativity and Fear are conjoined twins. They arrived on this earth with you and will be with you for the rest of your life, so....make some room for them. Acknowledge them. Honor them. Then get to work. 
  2. We all have that little voice in our head that was planted firmly in place by a small comment, phrase, moment, or person from our past that has somehow become the guiding force in your present moment. Don't let this voice keep you from creating, living, breathing joy in your life and your work. Your destiny is firmly in your hands, and we have all the power to release these voices from there unnecessarily duty. 
  3. We are all CREATIVE. You, and you, and you, and you, and even ME. It's in our DNA to be inquisitive, curious, crafty, and intuitive. I even wrote down in my journal, "When did I tell myself I am creative", somewhere along the way I forgot to remind myself that I am powerfully creative, did you forget too? 
If you feel like your struggling, down on yourself, itching to start something but don't have a road map to get started, or just want to feel re-ignited by your work, get this book, just do it. You are worth $24.95, I promise you are. 

1 comment:

  1. I just saw her this weekend, too and can completely with everything you said! She's pretty amazing. I really loved her discussion on perfectionism just being another form of fear.

    ReplyDelete