my take: This is a celebration of CREATIVITY based on the idea that we humans are made to make – to CREATE – in the likeness of our CREATOR. (I have a child who says he’s not artistic … creativity and art-ability are not the same thing…can’t wait till this kid gets home from college so I can [lovingly] accost him with this news).

But let me have Ms. Gilbert tell you what it’s about:

     “I firmly believe that we all need to find something to do in our lives that stops us from eating the couch. Whether we make a profession out of it or not, we all need an activity that is beyond the mundane and that takes us out of our established and limiting roles in society (mother, employee, neighbor, brother, boss, etc.) We all need something that helps us to forget ourselves for a while–to momentarily forget our age, our gender, our socioeconomic background, our duties, our failures, and all that we have lost and screwed up….Perhaps creativity’s greatest mercy is this: By completely absorbing our attention for a short and magical spell, it can relieve us temporarily from the dreadful burden of bing who we are. Best of all, at the end of your creative adventure, you have a souvenir –something that you made, something to remind you forever of your brief but transformative encounter with inspiration.” (p. 172)

Baking, dancing, knitting, getting tattoos … all the arts and all their expressions are included. And anything that involves taking bits of something and creating something else.

Ms. Gilbert writes like your hip older sister giving you the secrets to the cool life and also like the youngest rebel wild child giving you permission to add some spice to life. She’s fun, funny, daring, quirky, self-deprecating, curious, and willing to share the experience of her own creative dance.

my source: Liz and I are Facebook friends and Instagram buds. She tells me everything.

my verdict: yes! read this!