How I did it: I'd rather add some rather poignant quotes from the last chapter in this book:

“As artists, we are the bearers of gifts, spiritual endowments that come to us gratis and ask only to be used. A gift for music asks only that we give voice to it. A fine photographer’s eye asks that we focus it. We are responsible to our gifts for the use of our gifts, and this is a form of accountability too.”

“I have to remind myself there’s something larger than me and my skill, something more important than my ego’s perception.”

“Contemplating a piece of work, we do better to think, Whom is this work for? Whom will it serve? rather than How will it serve me?”

“Arguably, we are all in service to an artist greater than our own. Life itself works through us. We are the carriers of dreams and desires that may have originated generations earlier. Music runs in families. So does a gift for drama and for words. When we elect to make art from a spirit of service to a larger whole, we are simply becoming truthful. We are all part of a larger whole and, in acknowledging that truthfully, we move a notch closer to humility, to a simple and sheer plainness that allows the beauty of the grand design to be seen through us. If beauty is truth and truth beauty – and I believe that this is so – then our acknowledgment of our place in a larger scheme of things strikes a first true note from which more beauty follows.”

“Art is a spiritual practice. We may not, and need not, do it perfectly. But we do need to do it. It is my belief that the making of art makes us more fully human. In becoming more fully human, we become more fully divine, touching in our finite way the infinite spark within each of us. Focused on our art, we connect to the artful heart of all life. The creative pulse that moves through us moves through all of creation. It could be argued that creativity is a form of prayer, a form of thankfulness and recognition of all we have to be thankful for, walking in this world.”

Lessons & tips: Start. Read a little bit every day. Or three days a week. Do the exercises on the weekends, or divide them up also through the week.They're worth it.

Resources: Being a morning person... and keeping the book in the bathroom, so you can read it for bits and pieces of inspiration even when you've forgotten about it.

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Jul 18, 2009, 11:20AM PDT | 1 comment | 12 cheers