On Inspiration {Sharing something NEW & Exciting!}
Elizabeth Gilbert in her book Big Magic talks about creative inspiration. She believes that sometimes ideas come to people, fully formed asking to be created. The idea stays with a person for a while, if they don’t create what is asking to be made, it leaves and finds another vessel. She shared a very powerful story of a time she didn’t write the story that had come to her, she knew when the idea left and she was surprised several years later to read a book almost identical to the inspiration she had had. In late December and early January, I started looking for a guided journal or planner to start 2020 with. I was so disappointed by what I was finding. Everything seemed focused on: crush your goals, do more, be more productive. The underlying message was, who you are isn’t quite enough, but if you DO more things, you’ll soon be AWESOME! I kept asking myself, where are the guided journals and daily planners that say, be more, don’t do more? I even decided to start my own bullet journal-but that lasted two weeks. (Kudos to anyone who can manage that! It was too much for me!) In mid-January inspiration came to me. One morning I knew exactly what needed to be created. The idea came fully formed. There was a clear path, with giant blinking lights showing me the path. I made it!! From start to finish EVERY step. I stepped into a flow that was larger than me and just kept doing the next thing. (I did have a professional editor edit…thankfully! She told me I was showing my age by putting two spaces after each period.) I made what I couldn’t find. Maybe it was more timely than I knew in January and February? Let me introduce you to the Be More Journal. She is 118 pages. Every word was thoughtfully considered to encourage more being and less doing…or maybe doing the things that matter, rather than doing the things that don’t. Be More Journal is a daily framework that you can use to order your day. It’s about Being More and Doing Less. That’s going to look different for each one of us. I hope this journal will be a tool for people to find what that means for them. It’s five daily questions to order your day around presence and being, rather than producing and doing. My favorite part is a short reflective reading each day. Just a sentence or two from people like Parker Palmer, Frederick Buechner, Henri Nouwen, Joan Chittister, & Madeleine L’Engle. I’ve learned so much from this process. There are times in life where things feel forced. I have chased ideas that sound so good in concept, but they just never flow. This was a completely different experience. There is no other way to describe it, but flow. Every step, so many new and unknown, just flowed as I kept doing the next thing. The details: It’s only available right now on Amazon. I’m waiting for some more copies but, well, things are moving slowly right now. If you decide to purchase my humble little journal, would you leave a review? Reviews will help other people find it.
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