Sono arrivata. I’ve been in Florence twenty-four hours. It took me a while to settle in but last night’s delicious meal of mixed crostini, chicken with truffle sauce and roasted rosemary potatoes, a twelve hour sleep, two cappuccino this morning, and my favorite mixed vegetables at Ciro and Sons Ristorante at noon has helped ground me. It took a while this time to settle into why I was here for the umpteenth solitary visit. In the recent past I was writing the book about Mom, but with “Very Grateful” published, I found myself wanting a project, and yet not finding one. Then this morning on my wander about the city, I started taking pictures.
“Oh no,” you say, “More of the same?”
“Oh yes,” I say, “More but always different, for this is a new moment, a new view of this miraculous city.”
I realize that these blog posts have become part of my purpose: to inspire, affirm, and encourage people who long for solitude, silence and simplicity and who sometimes like to be alone. But why this longing? What do we long for? We long for meaning and purpose in our lives. Elizabeth Gilbert, in her new book “Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear,” frames this meaning as a creative desire that every human being has. If we don’t tap into it we open ourselves to depression and no reason to live. I may be over-simplifying this, but I know I’m onto something.
While I’m here in Florence for the next twelve days I plan to blog, primarily with pictures, about creativity I see happening around Florence. Not only through artifacts of long ago, but the through the work of contemporary artists out there on the streets: painters, sculptors, multi-media artists, textile artists, architects, photographers, culinary artists, writers, horticulturalists, athletes. There are also artists who create through the spoken word: ministers, professors, teachers. And what about animal lovers, or those doing all they can to save this beautiful earth. Clearly they are creative artists as well. My startup list expands as I write. I venture to say that the common denominator is that they all have something to share.
Maybe you are one of these artists, maybe you express your creativity another way. We all have something we do (or want to do) that makes our life purposeful?
“Oh no,” you say, “More of the same?”
“Oh yes,” I say, “More but always different, for this is a new moment, a new view of this miraculous city.”
I realize that these blog posts have become part of my purpose: to inspire, affirm, and encourage people who long for solitude, silence and simplicity and who sometimes like to be alone. But why this longing? What do we long for? We long for meaning and purpose in our lives. Elizabeth Gilbert, in her new book “Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear,” frames this meaning as a creative desire that every human being has. If we don’t tap into it we open ourselves to depression and no reason to live. I may be over-simplifying this, but I know I’m onto something.
While I’m here in Florence for the next twelve days I plan to blog, primarily with pictures, about creativity I see happening around Florence. Not only through artifacts of long ago, but the through the work of contemporary artists out there on the streets: painters, sculptors, multi-media artists, textile artists, architects, photographers, culinary artists, writers, horticulturalists, athletes. There are also artists who create through the spoken word: ministers, professors, teachers. And what about animal lovers, or those doing all they can to save this beautiful earth. Clearly they are creative artists as well. My startup list expands as I write. I venture to say that the common denominator is that they all have something to share.
Maybe you are one of these artists, maybe you express your creativity another way. We all have something we do (or want to do) that makes our life purposeful?