• Write about your plans for Thanksgiving this year.
• Write about what you're most grateful for.
• Write a letter of gratitude to someone.
• Write about a Thanksgiving of the past.

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin (nonfiction)

I picked up this book when on holiday at Nepenthe in Big Sur. I'm not sure that I would have picked it up anywhere else, but everything in that store tends to be so inspiring. After reading it and discussing it with others, I learned how many others have already read and loved it. One comment that kept coming up is, "It's so good; it made so much sense that I could have written it!" Actually, I felt the same way. So many of Rubin's wisdoms are comfortably intuitive. If you're feeling creatively stuck or at a dead end, chances are opening this book to any page will fill you with inspiration and love for the creative process.

I ear-marked many pages that it's difficult to highlight my favorite passages. However, just to provide a snippet, here are some of his wisdoms. Rubin and other creatives like myself are ritualistic. He wrote about a songwriter who always wrote her music in the same messy room in an old office building. He mentioned Charles Dickens who carried a compass to make sure he was always facing north when he slept (p.325). He believed that the electrical currents of the earth supported his creativity. Dr. Seuss, for example, had a bookcase with a false door hiding hundreds of unusual hats. How's that for inspiration.

What are your rituals? I would love to hear!