Here’s why. This is an address to Boston Conservatory students – I don’t have the speaker’s name but the message is a beautiful one. “If we were a medical school, and you were here as a med student practicing appendectomies, you’d take your work very seriously because you would imagine that some night at two AM someone is going … Read More
Words from the Wise
I’m a big fan of inspiration. Love listening to the pros and how they navigate through this beautiful and crazy creative life. Here are three of my hero’s – Steven Pressfield (The Legend of Bagger Vance and The War of Art), Isabelle Allende (House of Spirits) and Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic) – talking about life, … Read More
Doorways
Last week I went to a wonderful writer’s retreat in Connecticut. A house on the ocean. Sunshine. Cool sea breezes. Nothing between you and the blank page but: YOU. Ah, there’s the rub. No matter where you go, you’re taking along some extra baggage – you and your story. How ever that story has played out in your mind … Read More
Girl Power! The 12 Stages of the Heroine’s Journey
Here’s a quick at a glance look at the Hero(ine)’s Journey from Joseph Campbell’s monomyth. There are two aspects to the stages: the outer journey and the inner journey (the inner is in parenthesis). Both are equally important. Think of this as going around the face of a clock, starting at one o’clock with Stage 1 and finishing … Read More
Come out of the Shadows
“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Harold Thurman Whitman. I believe it was Joseph Campbell who brought to light the Hero’s Journey and it’s stages. He spoke of the monomyth in his brilliant book The Hero … Read More
Hidden Summer
If you were lucky enough, like I was, to spend summers growing up by the seashore on a place like Nantucket Island – then you know what magic is. And how sometimes magic can have a transformative effect – alchemical even, turning lead into gold. There’s something about being surrounded by the ocean, isn’t there? Being on a “faraway land” … Read More