Are you a closet “creative”?

Elizabeth Gilbert’s name is synonymous with her fantastically bestselling memoir, Eat Pray Love. Eat Pray Love was borne of a moment of total collapse in her life. And you can call it “chick lit,” but it’s inspired millions to move forward with their lives, differently. Through the disorienting process of becoming a global celebrity, Elizabeth Gilbert has reflected deeply on the gift and challenge of creativity.

She defines creativity, in life as in art, as choosing the path of curiosity over the path of fear. This has resonance for our common life too. And, she says, it’s not to be confused with the more familiar trope, to ‘follow your passion.’

She said, “I think curiosity is our friend that teaches us how to become ourselves. And it’s a very gentle friend and a very forgiving friend, and a very constant one. Passion is not so constant, not so gentle, not so forgiving, and sometimes. not so available. And so, when we live in a world that has come to fetishize passion above all, there’s a great deal of pressure around that.

“Creative living is choosing the path of curiosity over the path of fear, which is pretty straightforward. The more mystical and precious we make creativity and spirituality both, the more people get left out of it. And I think that’s a pity and a loss, and sometimes, even a tragedy. So, it should be that all are invited, or else what are we even doing here?

Picture this. Every human child is born doing this stuff innately. It’s an instinct. There’s no child that you put crayons and paper in front of who doesn’t get it, what you’re supposed to do. No four-year-old boy was ever sat in front of a pile of Legos and said, “I don’t know, I’m just — I’m not feeling it.”

And I think what we find often happens is that most people that I talk to can usually pinpoint, with quite a specific accuracy, moments in their lives where certain artistic expressions were taken away from them; where, suddenly, they were informed that they were not a good singer or that they couldn’t dance or that they couldn’t draw. And there’s usually some shaming around it; often, some public shaming. Somebody decides along the way, “Well, no, Heather is the creative one.” “She’s good at music.”  And you get pushed out of it, in a way. And the other weird side effect of that is that those “special” kids who get shunted into the category of being “artistic” or “creative” — they often become neurotic basket cases, because it’s a great deal of pressure to put upon one kid out of 100, to say, “You’re the special one. Now go deliver unto us our artistic dreams that nobody else is allowed to do.” [1]

It’s crazy!

Everyone look in your closet and pull out and put on your creativity. It still fits.

[1] https://onbeing.org/programs/elizabeth-gilbert-choosing-curiosity-over-fear-may2018/

    Until next time, remember,

• You are not alone.

• You are not your circumstances.

• You have everything within you to live a purpose-filled life.