I realize this is far too late to be posting about my February book of the month! Life got busy and I didn’t get to set aside as much reading time as I would have liked. That being said, there is always room for improvement! I’m soooo sorry if you were able to finish on time and have been waiting on me. Oy!!!

I had BIG expectations for Big Magic. To tell you the truth, I had a hard time getting into to it. There were moments of brilliance that truly inspired me and then there were pages that were hard for me to get through. Maybe that’s why it took me so long to read it? It definitely wasn’t a “can’t put it down” type of book, but did make me think about creativity in a way I have never thought about before.

I dog-eared a few pages that really spoke to me. I know some people are highly against this practice, but I don’t mind a well worn book, one that has been loved and used. My biggest takeaway from the book is that creativity is not only a gift to the audience but to the creator as well. It wasn’t too long ago that I started my blog and I did it just for me. A journal to some degree, a photo album to another, and a place for creative writing and shared experiences. I’ve found that when I write for myself, I’m more relatable rather than trying to write what I think my audience wants to hear.

Another chapter I appreciated was “Your Day Job”. Elizabeth Gilbert discussed how you can still make time for art on the side of your “bread and butter” day job. I love her line, “People don’t do this kind of thing because they have all kinds of extra time and energy for it; they do this kind of thing because their creativity matters to them enough that they are willing to make all kinds of extra sacrifices for it.” I work full-time as an event planner, but I still squeeze in the time to blog in my free time. After bedtime, naps, road trips, you name it, I make time for it because I truly love it. I may only get to squeeze out one post a week and I might post about my February book club choice mid-March, but hey, I made time for it today and that’s what matters, right?!

I loved her overall idea about saying “yes” to creativity. That it can find you and speak to you in all different places. She romanticized the magic of creativity and when I really sit back and think about it, it is pretty magical. I remember the day I finally sat down and signed up for WordPress, a domain name and a hosting site for my blog. I had been thinking about it for years. I even started a blog and quit after just a few posts because I wasn’t quite ready. Out of the blue, my mom forwarded me an email about blogging and a couple days later I decided to go for it. I think creativity had been knocking at my door for awhile and realized that I needed another push. Recruiting my mom was brilliant! I’m so happy I finally said “yes” and starting doing what I always thought I’d do “one day”.

As you can tell, I was inspired by Big Magic and was able to relate blogging to a lot of the points in the book even though it took me awhile to get through it. I can’t wait to hear what you thought about Big Magic!

Did it inspire you? In what way? Are you still holding back your creativity?

I’ll be skipping March (for obvious late-girl reasons) and will be posting April’s SUGAR MAPLE book club choice soon! Any suggestions?!

View all SUGAR MAPLE book club posts.

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