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A friend of mine recently recommended  (well, commanded is more the word) that I watch a video of Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat Pray Love) on Ted. We were talking about the promptings we had been receiving to write and my friend stopped in mid-conversation and said, “You have to watch this video! Watch it then tell me what you think!” So I did. And just so we’re all on the same wavelength about what this video is about, here it is:  (Please note that it’s about a 20-minute talk, but well worth your time and energy.)

Now the interesting thing here is that as a coach and creative person, I have been really focused on creating abundance in my own life and in the lives of others. Not just material abundance, but abundance of joy, freedom of expression, inspiration, service, love, connection to Source — all that good stuff. But what I have missed, it seems, is that unless and until I negotiate with that Source of Inspiration when it comes and find a way to stay tapped into it on a regular basis, I am going to miss opportunities for it to express through me.

This is the sort of idea that makes many very talented people become addicts, I know, or give up on doing what they love because it can seem just too damn hard to let creativity flow through you when you’re worried about all the other things you feel are important to do in this life.  One idea that really resonated with me in Ms. Gilbert’s talk was this idea of no longer feeling at the mercy of my creative urges, but in fact, working with them in a way that allows me to have a little more say-so in how and when I act on them.

One of the examples that is given in the video is of Tom Waits driving down the freeway and hearing this beautifully tantalizing melody and feeling that angst that accompanies inspiration for many of us, especially since he was driving down the freeway and couldn’t exactly stop and write a song! Has anything like that ever happened to you? Have you ever been struck by an idea right at the most impossibly inconvenient time? Sometimes I think that the Universe is just torturing me when this happens. But what Tom did that changed his creative process was to look up and negotiate with his Muse and ask it to come back at a more convenient time.

I love this. It means that instead of feeling like I better hurry or else I’ll miss the idea that’s thundering around in my brain, I get to be creative on my own terms.  I don’t happen to believe that creativity is the gift of an elite few. I think creativity shows up when we allow it to. When we make space for it in our lives. When we love it enough to ask it to come back at a more convenient time and then keep the appointment.

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