I’m reading a new book, Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray Love.  You might like it.  It is about living the creative life and is mostly geared toward writers, but also other artists.

Some of it gets a little out there for me. The idea of your muse being a magic being who hangs around your shoulders pushing you forward – I’m a little too practical for that.  But I do agree with most of what she says, and she is a great proponent for living the creative life.  Creativity comes in all shapes and sizes.  Some people say they don’t have it, others can’t live without it. But I believe most people have a creative spark within them, they just shove it down while they work hard at other things.  Take it from a practical person, the creative spark is in there.

I spent a lot of years living and working in an environment that didn’t help support my creative muse.  But I’ve always loved the feeling of creating something, whether it was a craft, a flower arrangement, sewing a garment, or something else that didn’t bring home the bacon.  It was my outlet after a long day of keeping my nose to the grindstone.

But with retirement brought the opportunity to do as I please.  No more 8 to 5 (or 12-hour days) only to come home, cook dinner, clean up, and deal with growing children.  I was too tired to hardly fall into bed sometimes let alone create something.

Now, I can write and create all day long. And yet sometimes I don’t finish a project because I get bored with it, lose track of where it’s going, or get side-tracked with another. Melissa Gilbert is great at showing you why you need to keep pushing forward and learning more and more about your craft.  So, what if your creation isn’t a NY Times Best Seller.  What you create is a part of you.  And it should be finished so you can get on to the next.

Check out Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert if you’re interested.  It might encourage you to let that creative spark bloom again.

What are you reading this week?