Follow Your Bliss

This morning I sat out back and read the final chapters of The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life. My son joined me on the deck with his breakfast. I put the book face down on the table--ran my hand along the well-worn spine and sighed deeply. We sat quietly for a while, letting birdsong and breeze speak for us. I picked the book back up...flipped through the last pages…set it down again.

I need more coffee, I announced to the air, wrapping fingers around my favorite green polka-dot mug.

I felt his eyes on my back as I went to the door.

Are you procrastinating?

I grinned.

How did he know I had just read that chapter?

It’s time to say goodbye to Julia Cameron.

I’m the kind of girl that when finished with a good read, I can’t move on quickly. I have to sit with the characters for a time…miss them some.

I have come to think of Julia Cameron as a friend these past weeks. Through her I met my muse, drew encouragement about my crazy writing schedule, and made my commitment to morning pages. I’ve made some new friends and strolled along with some familiars. Of most value, I think I have grown as a writer—having been courted, stretched, and loved.

The courtship is over, my friends. It’s time to step into the real commitment. Do you dare sign the contract? Do you dare follow your bliss?

If I’m going to marry this Writing Life, it has to be bliss. But, one thing I have learned from Julia Cameron is that the bliss can come after pushing through some pretty tough stuff. Isn’t that what marriage is all about?

If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are—if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time. –Mythologist Joseph Campbell, who coined the phrase follow your bliss.

I couldn’t say it any better. Go ahead. Say “yes” to the Writing Life. It’s a sweet invitation.

Related posts:

Jessica's The Narrator

Charity's Writing in Vein

Erin's A Contract for a Life of Writing Bliss

Cassandra's High Stakes

Nancy's Choices and Voices

L.L.'s What I Should be Writing

Glynn's Looking for that Toy Radio

Lyla's Inside Out

Photo by Ann Voskamp, used with permission. Post by Laura Boggess.

All the book club posts:

The Right to Write: New Book Club Selection
On Forgetting Myself
Quiltwork
Invite the Muse to Tea
Going Deeper
I Go Alone
A Letter To Myself
Writing as Prayer
At Least the Potential for Happiness
Honesty’s Shy Younger Sister
First Words: Feeding the Horses
Wanted: Friendly Reader
I Eat With My Eyes
Roots

The book club will be taking a break for the rest of the summer. Stay tuned for our next book club announcement.

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• julia cameron
• the right to write: an invitation and initiation into the writing life

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