A Letter to Liz Gilbert

Dear Liz,

I hope you don’t mind me calling you Liz.  Having read Big Magic this week, it feels like I know you…or at least, that you know me.

I finished reading Big Magic yesterday.  I had heard of the book but, having heard it was about creative living, I thought “oh, that’s not for me.  I’m not a ‘creative’”.  But my friend Siobhan, who blogs at the inspiring ToGetHerFurther, spoke so highly about it – when I say that, I mean she gushed about it – and I have seen such a wonderful metamorphosis in her over the last months.  It made me curious!

And boy, am I glad I followed that curiosity.  Within the first few pages on the tube, I knew this book was going to throw everything I thought I knew about creativity on its head.  I couldn’t quite understand how you had reached into my head and pulled out everything I was scared of, even the fears I haven’t even been able to name.  It was like you were talking straight to me, like you were sat next to me, holding my hand, telling me it was okay to go and do the things that I wanted to do.

Until recently, I didn’t even know I wanted to do these things.  When I left the RAF two years ago, I didn’t know that it was possible.  I don’t think I had met anyone who had done anything than have a normal career.  I mean, I am happy with what I’m doing now and what my life looks like but there is this deep-seated yearning to do something different.  Something I can’t quite put my finger on yet but that little voice is whispering possibilities to my heart.

Your voice poured in through your book and amplified it so it’s shouting me at now.  And then I realised maybe that voice isn’t just yours; it’s mine too.   That profound wisdom is within me too.  I mean, there is a very frightened little voice there too – the one that asks scornfully “who are you to think you can do this?” – but that wise voice is getting louder.

So maybe you shouldn’t be the only recipient of this letter.  Maybe this letter is to me, to that fearless woman inside me just waiting to be let loose.  She’s telling me to be brave, to move forward, to live wholehearted (as the wonderful Brene Brown would say) with every fibre of my being.  My head suddenly seems filled with ideas; it’s almost that, as soon as I dared to dream, they came flooding in, bursting through the little cracks that have started to open in my head and my heart.  I’ve absolutely no idea how to do any of  it – yet – but I do know, if there is one thing I’m good at, it’s putting a damn good plan together and now I have something to plan.

So I’m writing to say thank you.  I am so full of appreciation for everyone who has opened my eyes and my heart over the last year (Escape the City, Rebel Book Club, the Yes Tribe, Noi Club – especially Siobhan and Paola).  You are the most incredible people who have helped me realise that anything is possible.

with love, compassion and eternal gratitude