Creativity is Sacred, and it is Not Sacred

“Creativity is sacred, and it is not sacred.
What we make matters enormously, and it doesn’t matter at all.
We toil alone, and we are accompanied by spirits.
We are terrified, and we are brave.
Art is a crushing chore and a wonderful privilege.
Only when we are at our most playful can divinity finally get serious with us.
Make space for all these paradoxes to be equally true inside your soul, and I promise–you can make anything.
So please calm down now and get back to work, okay?
The treasures that are hidden inside you are hoping you will say yes.”

-Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic

Where You Are Right Now

“This place where you are right now, God circled on a map for you.”

-Hafiz

An Extra Dose of Compassion

“I mean, when you’re like on your sixth year of a novel, it’s real easy—and you’ve taught a student in a workshop and they’ll write a novel in six months—it’s not unimaginable that you’ll blame yourself. A friend of mine said something that was helpful for me and pushed me through this. Every time you write a new book, even if it’s your first book, the hard part isn’t writing it. The hard part is becoming that person you have to become to finish the book. And usually what you need to finish a book is not more talent or more workshops or more criticism. Usually what you need to finish your book is an extra dose of compassion, not just simply to connect to your characters—that helps. But usually the compassion that you need to connect to your characters is first modeled whether you’re compassionate to yourself.”

–Junot Diaz

Inscribed Across the Heavens

“Sometimes everything has to be inscribed across the heavens so you can find the one line already written inside you.”

-David Whyte

All Serious Daring

“All serious daring starts from within.”

-Eudora Welty

You Are The One

“You are the one you’ve been waiting for.”

-Byron Katie

There Are Years

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”

-Zora Neale Hurston

Cheers to a New Year

“Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.”

-Oprah Winfrey

A New Heart

“A new heart for a New Year, always!”

-Charles Dickens

You’re My Home

Home can be the Pennsylvania Turnpike
Indiana’s early morning dew
High up in the hills of California
Home is just another word for you

Well I never had a place that I could call my very own
That’s all right, my love, ’cause you’re my home

If I travel all my life
And I never get to stop and settle down
Long as I have you by my side
There’s a roof above and good walls all around
You’re my castle, you’re my cabin and my instant pleasure dome
I need you in my house ’cause you’re my home.
You’re my home.

-Billy Joel