Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Written and Narrated By: Elizabeth Gilbert
Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
The joy of saying YES!
While much of Big Magic uses the act of writing as an example, any form of creativity is promoted. As a writer, however, I found all of it to be sublime. This is a truly wonderful and inspiring book. It takes fear, oh heck, let’s capitalize it: Fear! and tells us that fear is a basic part of human existence, necessary for survival but that it should never ever be in the driving seat of our creative journey. Speak to fear, let it know you respect it, but for the love of GOSH, don’t give it the car keys!
Elizabeth Gilbert writes so well, but her narration is what makes this an audiobook worth listening to. Because she’s a warm, witty, wise, and especially wry gal, and that sense of humor shines through. Big Magic is about not taking things so seriously. It’s about avoiding The Martyr and embracing The Trickster. She gives many examples of creative types and their struggles, and she shows how lightly and joyfully does it best for them all. Sure, there are the extreme cases who seem to think that to create means one must embrace pain, angst; that to create something truly worthy, one must suffer for the art—hence the plethora of dead poets, writers, artists, but really. Is that what the creative spark in the Universe wants for us?
No, Big Magic in the Universe happens all the time, if we’ll but let it. We don’t have to whip ourselves or scrape the bottom of the barrel. Big Magic is about joy, and curiosity. It’s about listening to that little idea which has flitted into our minds from nowhere, giving us a chance to breathe life in it. Do you ever get those spine tingles, those raised hairs, those fluttering butterflies in the stomach when a new idea settles into your mind, into your heart? That’s an idea that has come to you for life. THAT’s Big Magic!
The whole audiobook is about learning to embrace our lives, every little bit of them. It’s about taking breaks for creativity as though we’re lovers finding a few extra moments for our beloved (rather than thinking of our creativity as a cruel taskmaster). It’s about gaming the system so that we find lightness in productivity. It’s about not calling our works our babies, but letting them go out into the world even as we return to the business of our next act.
It’s about making a vow to ourselves to love what we do, do what we love.
Does all the above sound hokey? Maybe, but I sure hope not because Big Magic is dazzling. There’s soooo much power in saying YES! We say yes to life, to our creative geniuses, to ourselves. We commit to living each moment mindfully, like we appreciate being here and being a part of the earth.
Okay, so maybe I’m going overboard here with my enthusiasm (can ya tell I liked it?), but at under 6 hours, the audiobook packs a lot. Each example of someone she knew who did it wrong or did it right is sure to enlighten you. It’s all very entertaining and definitely inspiring. I haven’t written a word of fiction in a long time, but after this book, I feel there are other ways to dream, to reach for something better, to stick my neck out, and to let go. Maybe by, oh I dunno: starting a website devoted to lovers of audiobooks and building a community of such individuals? Maybe?
Just take your ideas and run with them. Just take this audiobook and listen to it. Just take the story of the lobster and laugh.
Just take your dreams seriously, but yourself not so much… Big Magic is an audacious gem, it grounds you even as it teaches you to fly…!
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