I remember well when it came out because I was then in the editing process of the book I co-authored, The Healing Power of Doing Good, and working with the same publisher. And so on the phone one day, I got to tell then-editor Joelle Delbourgo at Ballantine: I stayed up late last night reading the Clarissa Pinkola Estes book and was so excited by it I couldn't sleep. She was pretty excited about that book too.
The conversation somehow made me feel closer to the message of the book. Which is: Women! renew and guard and rely on your instinctive, intuitive capabilities. Use them to do what's important to you.
Estes writes about excitement, passion, courage and how to stay vividly alive and creative.
Number One Principle of Creativity: Keep Coming Back
"Protect your creative life," she says, "Practice your work every day. Then, let no thought, no man, no woman, no mate, no friend, no religion, no job, and no crabbed voice force you into a famine. If necessary, show your incisors."
Typing that quote made me ask myself: Do I have to show "incisors" to protect my work time? I did interrupt 2 social conversations so far today, each time saying: I have to get back to it.
But both chats were with writers, and knew what "it" meant. So no incisors were needed. Which has usually been my experience. Still, it's good to be able to trust one's guardian wolf as needed, to know that she's there.
