You know the old adage: Plant an expectation, reap a disappointment.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
One of these poems I wrote after having been here only a month. The other, I wrote this morning. In the space between the two poems, I have found acres of grace
Interpretation
This quote reflects the growth and transformation an artist experiences over time.
Elizabeth Gilbert's quote highlights the profound journey of creative expression, emphasizing how time and experience can lead to significant artistic development. From the initial poem, created shortly after arriving in a new place, to the one written after a month of exploration, she illustrates how the 'acres of grace' found in that span represent the depth and richness that can emerge from conscious engagement with one’s surroundings and inner self.
In practice
In a workshop about creative writing, this quote could inspire participants to reflect on their growth.
You know the old adage: Plant an expectation, reap a disappointment.
Do not apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots.
I had always been taught that the pursuit of happiness was my natural (even national) birthright. It is the emotional trademark of my culture to seek happiness. Not just any kind of happiness, either, but profound happiness, even soaring happiness. And what could possibly bring a person more soaring happiness than romantic love.
When I tried this morning, after an hour or so of unhappy thinking, to dip back into my meditation, I took a new idea with me: compassion. I asked my heart if it could please infuse my soul with a more generous perspective on my mind's workings. Instead of thinking that I was a failure, could I perhaps accept that I am only a human being--and a normal one, at that?
And when you sense a faint potentiality for happiness after such dark times you must grab onto the ankles of that happiness and not let go until it drags you face-first out of the dirt - this is not selfishness, but obligation. You were given life; it is your duty to find something beautiful within life no matter how slight.
But never again use another person's body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilling yearnings.
An artist is someone who produces things that people don't need to have but that he - for some reason - thinks it would be a good idea to give them.
Actors are responsible to the people we play.
Good design keeps the user happy, the manufacturer in the black and the aesthete unoffended.
I think that's why often people in creative fields can feel so alone is because there's a constant third eye, that constant watcher.
Art is a habit-forming drug. Art has absolutely no existence as veracity, as truth. People always speak of it with this great, religious reverence, but why should it be so revered?
To insist on purity is to baptize instinct, to humanize art, and to deify personality.
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