Wise words from "Walking in this World" by Julia Cameron

Tidying up today, I came upon one of my notebooks where I'd jotted down some things I wanted to remember from "Walking in this World: the practical art of creativity,"  by Julia Cameron.   This book was published in 2002 by Penguin. Its ISBN is 1-58542-183-9)

Cameron says that writers, like anyone who tries to create something, must be like the farmer in " Field of Dreams" and must trust enough to build it, whatever "it" is, and trust that "they will come."  She warns against being "miniaturized" by our friends, who know only one small part of us, as in the poem, "The Blind Man and the Elephant."  She writes:

"Friends tend to reinforce the you that they see. They want to hold onto a you that doesn't threaten them and that gives them a comfortable sense of their own size and importance."

She warns that we may have to "shed" the friends who won't let us grow.

She adds:

"Nelson Mandela has remarked that we do no  one any favours 'hiding our light' and pretending to be 'smaller than we are.' And yet, calling it modesty, we often try to play small and even stay small...We are spiritual beings and when our spirit grows larger, so must we. There will be no comfortable resting in yesterday's definition of ourselves."

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