This talk by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the very popular memoir Eat, Pray, Love has suddenly become the buzz of the creative types I know. It was first sent to me by my beautiful friend Michaela; photographer, writer, creatrix, organic farmer, sustainable bulding designer, loving Mom and Partner, just to name a few! After she sent me this jewel, it began popping up in a lot of places.To be honest, I watched it four times in a row ( its 20 minutes long!) and was left with tears in my eyes, and pride in my heart. I am not a lover of all the online 'junk' that folks 'group forward' around, like chain letters, surveys, and photo jokes, so I was a little hesitant to post this, if just to avoid some grand redundancy of some sort....please forgive me, dear reader if everyone and their puppy knows about this one! ( at least 5 people I talked to at Open Studio had already gotten it from a friend or acquaintance!)
Elizabeth is about to release the follow up to her wildly successful book, and with that, ponders the very nature of creative output and inspiration, where it comes from, where it goes, and discusses the burden of expectation to be 'genius' every single time out of the gate. I will not say much more, but this little 20 minute speech is an ode to the muses like no other. Heat the kettle or pour yourself a cup 'o joe, and settle in... whatever your form of creative expression is......ole', ole', ole' to you all!