Insight in and of itself is an intellectual comfort. Power in and of itself is a blind force that can destroy as easily as build. It is only when we consciously learn to link power and light that we begin to feel our rightful identities as creative beings. The Morning Pages allow us to forge this link. They provide us with a spiritual ham-radio set to contact the Creator Within. For this reason, the Morning Pages are a spiritual practice.

Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you.

The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mode of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the change; happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up.

I believe and know creativity to be a spiritual issue. "Faith moves mountains" — Christ told us that, and he may have meant it literally. We speak of the Great Creator, we speak of Christ but seldom make the connection that the spiritual laws he taught are actually the spiritual laws related to creativity. "Knock and it shall be opened." "Ask and you shall receive" — these are spiritual laws as they relate to manifestation. As artists, we routinely ask for inspiration. We need to learn from Christ's example that we can also ask for the material manifestation of our vision to come to use as money, support, opportunity. Our faith, which is a request coupled with an expectation of it successful fulfillment, is no different from the faith of a navigator setting out to prove the world is round. Creative dreams come to us as visions that we are charged with fulfilling. When we allow the Great Creator to do this to us, through us, then we are aligning ourselves with the spiritual power necessary to negate the "odds."

Morning Pages are meditation, a practice that brings you to your creativity and your creator God. In order to stay easily and happily creative, we need to stay spiritually centered. This is easier to do if we allow ourselves centering rituals. It is important that we devise these ourselves from the elements that feel holy and happy to us. A spiritual room or even a spiritual corner is an excellent way to do this. An artist's altar could prove a sensory experience. Burning incense while reading affirmation or writing them, lighting a candle, dancing to drum music, holding a smooth rock or listening to Gregorian chant — all of these tactile, physical techniques reinforce spiritual growth. We need to unlearn our old notion that spirituality and sensuality don't mix. We are meant to celebrate the good things of this earth.

In a sense, our creativity is none of our busines. It is a given, not something to be aspired to. It is not an invention of our ego. It is, instead, a natural function of our soul. We are intended to breathe and to live. We are intended to list and create. We do not need special pens. We do not need special rooms or even special times. What we do need is the intention to allow creativity to create through us. When we open ourselves to something or someone greater than ourselves working through us, we paradoxically open ourselves to our own greatest selves.

Find something to feel good about and get out of the way, and allow the cells to receive what they've been asking for. That is the key to healing.

It is all too easy an artist to allow the shape of our career to be dictated to us by others. We can so easily wait to be chosen. Such passivity invites despair. To remain healthy and vital, artists must stay proactive in their own behalf. Writers must write for the love of writing and not merely, or only, to fulfill a book contract. Actors must consciously choose ways to keep acting when they are not winning auditions. As an artist, I must be alert to keeping myself in effective training. Like a creative triathlete, I must take care to be well-rounded. I must take stock of my talents and take the time and care to try to use them fully.

Every time you suppress some part of yourself or allow others to play you small, you are in essence ignoring the owner's manual your creator gave you and destroying your design.

When you reach an obstacle, turn it into an opportunity. You have the choice. You can overcome and be a winner, or you can allow it to overcome you and be a loser. The choice is yours and yours alone. Refuse to throw in the towel. Go that extra mile that failures refuse to travel. It is far better to be exhausted from success than to be rested from failure.

When you allow yourself to begin to dream big dreams, creatively abandon the activities that are taking up too much of your time, and focus your inward energies on alleviating your main constraints, you start to feel an incredible sense of power and confidence.

While we have the gift of life, it seems to me the only tragedy is to allow part of us to die — whether it is our spirit, our creativity, or our glorious uniqueness.

Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow.