The Genius In Us All

" If you never happened to believe that the most extraordinary aspects of your being came from you . . . just believe that they are on loan to you."  

                               Elizabeth Gilbert

 I watched a video of a lecture given recently by Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of the immensely popular book, "Eat, Pray, Love."  She presented her thoughts on redefining the idea of "genius" as it relates to creativity.  She suggested that, instead of concerning ourselves with the question of whether or not any of us is a genius, we should think of ourselves as having a genius who chooses to visit us from time to time.  Perhaps we need to simply do the work that we do best and, every day, say to the genius who is assigned to our case, "I showed up for my part of the job today; if you want to show up,  then that's terrific."

I think that I can probably look back at pieces I've created and know instinctively whether or not the genius showed up that day to work with me.  I do know that, after listening to this lecture, I'll try harder to at least put in my time each day, even if he (or she) does not accompany me. 

May your genius visit you often. 

Pictured above is a work entitled Notebook Series: #6.  Since I'm proud enough to display its picture in my blog for all to see, I'd like to imagine that I was not alone on the day it came into being . . .