Excerpt from "The Bliss Mistress Guide To Transforming the Ordinary Into the Extraordinary"

“The world is but a canvas to the imagination.”

—Henry David Thoreau

I am a voracious reader; I come by it genetically and by inclination. My favorite genres focus on transformation, spirituality, sexuality, sci-fi, relationships, and the lyrically (and sometimes quirkily) poetic. A few years ago I picked up a book that contained some of the above.

Within short order, this travelogue of the heart that took the writer on a one year journey to Italy, India, and Indonesia became a worldwide best seller. Eat, Pray, Love was penned by author Elizabeth Gilbert. Immediately attracted to the familiar, conversational style with which she draws the reader, I felt as if I was being carried along for the ride without need for passport or inoculation. I attended a presentation that Liz offered in New Hope, PA. The topic touched me to my core, since it was as if she and I were sitting face-to-face exploring the nature of creativity. She waxed both philosophical and practical about the ways in which our ideas come. One particular concept that latched hold was that while those of us who write, sing, dance, paint, draw, and design may believe that it is we who are creating, we are really the servants of the creation. Our artistry comes through us and not from us. I often state emphatically that “my writing writes me.” It uses me as a vehicle and voice to find its expression in the world. In spiritual terms, I sometimes say that I am God’s Typist, and as 13^th century ‘ecstatic’ Sufi poet Rumi refers to it—a “hollow reed.”

I find inspiration EVERYWHERE! It can be while cleaning a closet, sweating at the gym, in conversation with a friend, driving on a highway, reading someone else’s words, writing my own, floating deep in dreamland, or meditating. It arrives in unexpected ways and from unanticipated sources. I welcome it from wherever it has traveled to make its way to my door.

According to wikipedia, “Inspiration refers to an unconscious burst of creativity in a literary, musical, or other artistic endeavor. Literally, the word means ‘breathed upon’.” I like the idea of being breathed by the Divine.

I was listening to the radio in the car last week and Rod Stewart burst forth with “Every Picture Tells A Story.” He grabbed me and took me on his worldwide whirlwind that was far grittier and less poetic than Liz’s trip, but along I went. It occurred to me that not only does every picture tell a story, but every story paints a word picture. Although I used to claim that I wasn’t an artist, I can now retract that statement. As a writer, I have been told by readers that I do indeed paint word pictures into which they can step, dance, drift, or dream. When I set fingers to keyboard, I can imagine—eyes closed of course—that I am holding in my hand the wisp of a paintbrush. Sometimes dipping it into subtle colors, I more often plunge it into outrageous-jumping-up-and-down-look-at-me vibrant hues that splash across the paper begging to soak them up. Whew! Just typing those words gives me an intake of breath and causes butterflies to dance within . . .

So, I ask you:

Bliss Kisses

What creative force within you is calling out to be recognized?

Have you answered the call or told it nobody’s home?

How have you squelched your creativity?

How have you celebrated it?

This was excerpted from The Bliss Mistress Guide To Transforming the Ordinary Into the Extraordinary, written by Edie Weinstein. Balboa Press 2011 The book can be purchased via www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com or www.balboapress.com