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I am (not) an Artist: A Creative Manifesto by megg (free download!)

Words

Be careful of words,
even the miraculous ones.
For the miraculous we do our best,
sometimes they swarm like insects
and leave not a sting but a kiss.
They can be as good as fingers.
They can be as trusty as the rock
you stick your bottom on.
But they can be both daisies and bruises.

Yet I am in love with words.
They are doves falling out of the ceiling.
They are six holy oranges sitting in my lap.
They are the trees, the legs of summer,
and the sun, its passionate face.

Yet often they fail me.
I have so much I want to say,
so many stories, images, proverbs, etc.
But the words aren’t good enough,
the wrong ones kiss me.
Sometimes I fly like an eagle
but with the wings of a wren.

But I try to take care
and be gentle to them.

~ Anne Sexton
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They published your diary
And that’s how I got to know you
The key to the room of your own and a mind without end
And here’s a young girl
On a kind of a telephone line through time
And the voice at the other end comes like a long lost friend

-from “Virginia Woolf” by the Indigo Girls
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The Secret Place

There’s a place I go, inside myself,
Where nobody else can be,
And none of my friends can tell it’s there—
Nobody knows but me.

It’s hard to explain the way it feels,
Or even where I go.
It isn’t a place in time or space,
But once I’m there, I know.

It’s tiny, it’s shiny, it can’t be seen,
But it’s big as the sky at night . . .
I try to explain and it hurts my brain,
But once I’m there, it’s right.

There’s a place I know inside myself,
And it’s neither big nor small,
And whenever I go, it feels as though
I never left at all.

-Dennis Lee
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The Bridge

This bridge will only take you halfway there
To those mysterious lands you long to see
Through gypsy camps and swirling Arab fairs
And moonlit woods where unicorns run free.
So come and walk awhile with me and share
the twisting trails and wonderous worlds I’ve known.
But this bridge will only take you halfway there -
The last few steps you’ll have to take alone.

-Shel Silverstein

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“I don’t know what inspiration is, but if and when it comes, I hope it finds me working…”

- Pablo Picasso
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“My darling girl, when are you going to understand that normal isn’t a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage”

- Practical Magic (the movie)
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Caretake this moment.
Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed.
Quit the evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble.
It is time to fully live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.

-Epictetus
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… and the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

- Anais Nin
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To change one’s life:
-Start immediately
-Do it flamboyantly
-No exceptions.

-William James
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“Women are lush creatures. We are creation personified.”

- Clarissa Pinkola Estes
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We don’t see things as they are, but rather as we are.

- Anais Nin
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The voice inside your head is not the voice of God. It just sounds like it thinks it is.

- Cheri Huber
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There is no such thing as bad weather – only the wrong clothes.

- Billy Connolly
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“Would you like me to give you a formula for success?
It’s quite simple really. Double your rate of failure.”

- Thomas J. Watson
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If you want to know what your thoughts were like yesterday then check how your body feels today.

- Indian Proverb
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Remember that the moment you commit to something, providence moves too, and all sorts of unforeseen incidents and assistance occur. It’s as though your commitment becomes a magnet for good things to be drawn to you.

- Paul McKenna
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Be as healthy, as vibrant, as beautiful, as authentic as you possibly can be, in a way that speaks silently to others, You can be this too.

- Rachel Snyder

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Be the enchantress who brings a certain something they can’t quite define, who fills the room with mirth and magic, and who leaves them all a bit befuddled, entirely entranced, and touched by the goddess enchantment.

- Rachel Snyder

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“Actually, I think that I might be an elephant. I think I might be much bigger and grander than I thought!”

- Julia Cameron – Walking in this World

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“Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic and power in it.”

- Goethe

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God’s World

O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!
Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!
Thy mists, that roll and rise!
Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag
And all but cry with colour! That gaunt crag
To crush! To lift the lean of that black bluff!
World, World, I cannot get thee close enough!

Long have I known a glory in it all,
But never knew I this;
Here such a passion is
As stretcheth me apart, — Lord, I do fear
Thou’st made the world too beautiful this year;
My soul is all but out of me, — let fall
No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.

- Edna St. Vincent Millay

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“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret:
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;
what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

“What is essential is invisible to the eye,”
the little prince repeated,
so that he would be sure to remember.

“It is the time you have wasted for your rose
that makes your rose so important.

“It is the time I have wasted for my rose–
“said the little prince
so he would be sure to remember.

“Men have forgotten this truth,” said the fox.
“But you must not forget it.
You become responsible, forever,
for what you have tamed.

-Antoine de Saint Exupery

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From Blossoms
by Li-Young Lee

From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.

From ladden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

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“My whole life, I’ve wanted to feel comfortable in my skin. It’s the most liberating thing in the world.”

- Drew Barrymore

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“If you don’t find balance between pressure and pleasure, your epitaph is going to read “Got everything done. Died anyway.” I tell my patients to ask themselves one question when they go to bed at night. “Has today been a delight for me and everyone around me?” If your answer is no, or even sort of, you need to make major lifestyle changes far beyond exercise and nutrition. You need to ask yourself why you are alive.”

- Paul Pearsall

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Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.

– Mary Jean Iron

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… become a divine exhibitionist. Play more, laugh more, do things that make your spirit roar, that amplify all your senses and encourage others to smile. Love boldly. Make your spirituality brighter, your prayers more colorful, your life more refined and reflective. Not only make the divine see you, but make the divine want to lick your forehead and taste you. After all, it’s not enough to merely notice the divinity in the oak tree or gorgeous sunset or in your feelings for your loved ones, or even in the mirror. You have to pray from such an honest and open and raw place in yourself that the divine eagerly wants to kneel at the alter of you.”

- Sera Beak

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Trust yourself. Don’t let voices of doubt and self-deception immediately jump back in (they will always try); trust that your intuitive guidance is present, not to force unnecessary change on you that will make you miserable but to ultimately make you more than you could ever have imagined. Trust that your spirit wants you ultimately to have a sexually delicious, happy, and empowering relationship, a financially secure and personally rewarding career; and healthy eating habits, preferably all while wearing amazingly adorable yet perhaps more spine-supportive shoes. (Seriously, about the shoes.) So your inner self is asking you to make some choices and make some changes that will allow all that yummy goodness to come seeping into your immediate reality.

- Sera Beak (The Red Book pg 115)
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Magic is not an illusion. There are very real janitorial duties involved. And I suppose this goes for anything we do. Whether we keep fish behind our bathroom mirrors or paint or write or raise babies or work for the circus… let’s face it, the manifestation of magic requires unfeigned effort.

- Jessie Marianiello

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Jim Rohn says, “Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion.”

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“When you pray, move your feet.” – Quaker saying

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Think of an experience from your childhood. Something you remember clearly, something you can see, feel, maybe even smell, as if you were really there. After all, you really were there at the time, weren’t you? How else would you remember it?

But here is the bombshell: you weren’t there. Not a single atom that is your body today was there when that event took place….Matter flows from place to place and momentarily comes together to be you. Whatever you are, therefore, you are not the stuff of which you are made. If that doesn’t make the hair stand at the back of you neck, read it again until it does, because it is important.

-Steve Grand

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Over this brave small road, the wind blows. Tree and bush are left behind, only stone and moss grow here. Nobody has anthing to look for here, nobody here owns anything, up here the farmer has neighter hay nor wood. But the distance beckons, longing awakens, and through rocks and swamp, snow, they have provided this good little road, which leads to other valleys, other houses, to other languages and other men…..

But I smile, and not only with my mouth. I smile with my soul, with my eyes, with my whole skin, and I offer these countrysides, whose fragrances drift up to me, different senses than those I had before, more delicate, more silent, more finely honed, better practiced, and more grateful. Everything belongs to me more than ever before, it speaks to me more richly and with hundreds of nuances. My yearning no longer paints dreamy colors across the veiled distances, my eyes are satisfied with what exists, because they have learned to see. The world has become lovelier than before.

The world has become lovelier. I am alone, and I don’t suffer from my loneliness. I don’t want life to be anything other than what it is. I am ready to let myself be baked in the sun till i am done. I am eager to ripen. I am ready to die. ready to be born again.

The world has become lovelier.”

excerpted from Wandering by Herman Hesse

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“You are gods who have forgotten who they are. You are emperors who
have fallen asleep and are dreaming that they have become beggars. Now
beggars are trying to become emperors, in dreams they are making great
efforts to become emperors, and all that is needed is to wake up!”

- Osho

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Love after Love

The time will come
When, with elation,
You will greet yourself arriving
At your own door, in your own mirror,
And each will smile at the other’s welcome,

And say, sit here, Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
To itself, to the stranger who has loved you

All your life, whom you ignored
For another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

The photographs, the desperate notes,
Peel your image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

~ Derek Walcott
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“Know you could tumble any second. Then decide what to do with your time.”

- Naomi Shihab Nye

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“Don’t go anywhere. I beg you; The Moon you are looking for is inside you.”

-Rumi

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“Again and again in history some people wake up. They have no ground in the crowd and they move to broader, deeper laws. They carry strange customs with them and demand room for bold and audacious action. The future speaks ruthlessly through them. They change the world.”

- Rainer Maria Rilke

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To speak of sorrow
works upon it
moves it from its
crouched place barring
the way to and from the soul’s hall.

- Denise Levertov
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Determination:
“You Are Important.
Your Thoughts Create.
Your Actions Matter.
Your Presence Changes Everything.”

- Inner Links Website
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The more you flow you into existence
The more existence will flow into you
It is always in the same proportion.

Whatsoever you sow, you reap,
And whatsoever you give, you get.

So, if you want to get more energy,
Give more energy.

If you want to get more love,
Give more love.

If you want existence to shower on you
Great torrents of Bliss,
Then make people Blissful
Wherever you go.

-Osho

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“Do something that you will remember with pride and passion until the
end of your days.”

- Rob Brezsny

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“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”

- C.S. Lewis
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“…you’ve got to stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be.”

- Richard from Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

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“Practice…the more you do it, the better you get at it. Some days you don’t want to run and you resist every step of the three miles, but you do it anyway. You practice whether you want to or not. You don’t wait around for the deep desire to run.”

~ Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones

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“You have to recognize the demons or else they’ll annoy you like
mosquitoes. But if you acknowledge their existence, if you say, ‘All right,
here’s a cookie, go sit in the corner,’ then you can go about your work
and you don’t have to go into depression because of it.”

-James Broughton, as told to interviewer Jack Foley in The Alsop Review, “Big
Joy: Octogenarian–An Interview with James Broughton,”

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We have not come here to take prisoners,
But to surrender ever more deeply
To freedom and joy.

We have not come into this exquisite world
To hold ourselves hostage from love.

Run my dear,
From anything
That may not strengthen
Your precious budding wings.

Run like hell my dear,
From anyone likely
To put a sharp knife
Into the sacred, tender vision
Of your beautiful heart.

We have a duty to befriend
Those aspects of obedience
That stand outside of our house
And shout to our reason
“O please, O please,
Come out and play.”

For we have not come here to take prisoners
Or to confine our wondrous spirits,

But to experience ever and ever more deeply
Our divine courage, freedom and
Light!

~ Hafiz

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To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury; and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable; and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasion, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.

-William Henry Channing

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Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

-Steve Jobs

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Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A beauty bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one. It would explode high in the air – explode softly – and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth – boxes of Crayolas. And we wouldn’t go cheap, either – not little boxes of eight. Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in. With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest. And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with their imagination.

-Robert Fulghum

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“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

-E.B. White
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“You will achieve grand dream, a day at a time, so set goals for each day / not long and difficult projects, but chores that will take you, step by step, toward your rainbow. Write them down, if you must, but limit your list so that you won’t have to drag today’s undone matters into tomorrow. Remember that you cannot build your pyramid in twenty-four hours. Be patient. Never allow your day to become so cluttered that you neglect your most important goal / to do the best you can, enjoy this day, and rest satisfied with what you have accomplished.”

- Og Mandino
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