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Creative Is a Verb: If You're Alive, You're Creative [Paperback]

Patti Digh
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

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Book Description

October 19, 2010

Following up on her successful Life Is a Verb, and in the tradition of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, Patti Digh here presents a book that leads readers by both heart and head to acknowledge, reinforce, and use their own creative spirit. Creative Is a Verb is equally a book for people who say, “I’m not creative” or “I’m just a dabbler” or “I’m an artist.”


Frequently Bought Together

Creative Is a Verb: If You're Alive, You're Creative + Life Is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally + Four-Word Self-Help: Simple Wisdom for Complex Lives
Price for all three: $35.23

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Editorial Reviews

Review

What people are saying about Creative is a Verb

 

 “Soulful, warm, funny, smart--Patti is the perfect guide for anyone who knows deep down they are an artist but is having trouble finding the doorway." --Susan Piver, NY Times bestselling author of The Wisdom of a Broken Heart

 

"I adore Patti Digh’s writing, her depth, her sizzle.This is a classic, and I said it first."  --Jennifer Louden, NYTimes bestselling author of The Woman's Comfort Book and The Life Organizer

 

Praise for LIFE IS A VERB:
 
"Damn, girl. You write good." -Lee Hancock, Dallas Morning News
 
"I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: I adore Patti Digh’s book Life is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally.  I love her writing, her depth, her sizzle. This is a book that makes me sing with life and the possibilities we all have for transformation and awareness. It is the best antidote I’ve got these days for the pain and fear raging around us--that and loving hugs, long naps, frevent prayer and letting myself feel whatever I’m feeling."
--Jennifer Louden, author of The Woman's Comfort Book  
 

"Life is a Verb is brilliantly-crafted, raw, gorgeously-designed, and daringly different from 'self-help' books. It relates, through stories that sparkle and astonish and soar, how to move, to be on your way, to realize who you really are through your actions. Through exercises that you participate in, as if in conversation with the author, you will learn, as she promises in the prologue, 'deeper things—how to know what to care about, how to treat others around you (and yourself), what to question, how to love, what to stand up for, and why you should tell stories and listen to the stories of others.' There is no more important learning.

         So read it. Inhabit it. Breathe in every word, because every word of this book is essential. Let it animate you. Annotate it to make it your own. And then let it let you change yourself, and become who you were intended to be. Begin now. You have no time to lose."
--- Dave Pollard, author of The Natural Entrepreneur, and the weblog How to Save the World

 

 

"Patti’s guide for the last 37 days of life will turn every one of your next 3700 days a fully lived experience. If you had some unsolved fear for death, that would be your season ticket to have a free ride on the train with the author. I have never seen such a simultaneously practical, esthetic and soul-caressing book in my life."

--Kichiro Hayashi, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo

 

 

"I laughed.  I cried.  I want the t-shirt!  Seriously, Life is a Verb may well be the single book that will change the world or maybe only your life . . .    Artful, funny, heart-breaking, Digh reminds us that today isn't a dress rehearsal and we can start today celebrating the magic of ordinary life. Reading Life is a Verb is like mainlining goodness. Digh shows us what is real and what matters, and she gives us insiders tips on how to make minuscule life corrections that result in quantum shifts in experience.  She reminds us that life can easily be fun.  This will surely be the last self-help book you will ever need or want to read."
--Patricia Ryan Madson, Stanford Emerita, author of Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up

 

"Life Is A Verb is a wonderful treat! Good exercises, stories, and examples. Reading it will help you appreciate just how much can be gained through living with intention. It's also a lot of fun."
--Roger von Oech, author of A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative

 

"Life is a Verb is at once beautiful, profound and helpful--you can't beat that combination." --Sam Keen, NY Times best-selling author of Fire In the Belly

 

"We need this book." -Naomi Shihab Nye, award-winning poet

 

"Patti Digh writes like her hair is burning. You will dog-ear the pages and circle words and phrases and write in the margins. Patti is a great big, wide open contribution to the planet." --Lisa Gates

 

From the Back Cover

Find the Creative Spark in Everyday Life
 
Yearning to reclaim a creative spirit in your fantastic, unique life? . . . To live your whole life as art, not just the bits you draw on a canvas or embroider or sing? Join Patti Digh in a new kind of book that leads you by both heart and head to acknowledge, reinforce, and use your own creative spirit by teaching six creative commitments—Put Down Your Clever, Turn Around and Look, Show Up Like Magic, Please Lick the Art, Stop Trying So Hard, and Ignore All the Critics. Whether you’re apt to say, “I don’t have a creative bone in my body and really wish I were more creative,” “I’m just a dabbler but would love to be a real artist or craftsperson,” or “I’m an artist and would love to be known and respected,” Creative Is a Verb is for you.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: skirt!; First edition (October 19, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1599218836
  • ISBN-13: 978-1599218830
  • Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 0.6 x 9.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #257,173 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"If the Buddha had two kids, a dog named Blue, a Southern accent, and a huge crush on Johnny Depp, his name would be Patti Digh," wrote one reviewer after Digh's grassroots bestseller, Life Is a Verb, was published. In 2003, Patti Digh's stepfather was diagnosed with lung cancer and died just 37 days later. She woke up on day 38 and asked herself a question that she has asked every morning since: "What would I be doing today if I only had 37 days to live?"

Patti's award-winning blog, 37days.com, emerged from the lessons she learned by asking that question and soon the essays were crafted into the bestselling book LIFE IS A VERB: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally. Patti has since written FOUR-WORD SELF-HELP: Simple Wisdom for Complex Lives, CREATIVE IS A VERB: If You're Alive, You're Creative, and WHAT I WISH FOR YOU: Simple Wisdom for a Happy Life.

Her new book, The GEOGRAPHY OF LOSS, is due out from Globe Pequot Press in Summer 2013. In the tradition of her other releases, Geography of Loss will also be beautifully illustrated by readers. This unique book will serve as a guide to help readers Embrace What Is, Honor What Was and Love What Will Be.

In addition to her writing, Patti is a co-founder of an international consulting firm focused on re-imagining K-12 education. Patti is also a sought after Keynote speaker. Audiences come away from her speeches both laughing and crying, and with a clearer sense of what's important in their own lives.

Patti and her family live (intentionally) in the serene mountain town of Asheville, NC.
www.37days.com


Customer Reviews

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(18)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
58 of 61 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
*****
I took me a month to read this book, thinking about it, journaling about it, savoring every bit of it, being unwilling for it to end. Although it can be read cover-to-cover, you will miss out on much if you simply breeze quickly through this latest book by Patti Digh. Like the author's other recent books, "Life is a Verb" and "Four-Word Self-Help", this is a gorgeous colorful book, filled with art (created by many different readers of the author's blog) and stories and inspirational quotes. It is blessed with ("blessed" is the only word I can come up with here) poetry by the amazing poet Maya Stein.

The book is organized into chapters around six "creative commitments", with sections of each chapter ending with two sets of exercises--a shorter one that could take 10 minutes or so and another longer one that you could do (she suggests) for 37 days. The "37 days" has special significance for the author, as it is the length of time her beloved stepfather lived from the time he got a fatal diagnosis until his death. The six creative commitments are: (1) Be Ordinary, (2) See More, (3) Get Present, (4) Catch Fire, (5) Clear Ground, and (6) Let Go.

Telling you what I have so far about the book cannot convey how special and how different this book is. It doesn't matter if you've read other books on creativity. This book isn't just about that. It is about life, about living, about truly being alive, and about how we can all create, not just as artists or writers but as humans. The author writes, "...living fully, openly, deeply is a creative act". THIS is what the book is about. And the book takes you on a journey via stories told by the author so that you can experience this for yourself.
... Read more ›
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Creative is Possible - for All of Us November 20, 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Having been in a bit of a creative slump lately, I wanted to dive into this book and roar through it, hoping to be hit with a lightening bolt of inspiration and drive. Instead, something quite different happened. I found myself compelled to take my time with it. I read through the book slowly, from front to back (often I skip all over the place until I land on something I find interesting), and then going back and re-reading - highlighting - writing in the margins - making notes of how the thoughts and messages contained in the book related to me and my own creative path. The book has been on my nightstand for a month, and it has become something of a night time ritual for me to pick it up, and randomly open it to a chapter... and then spend a few minutes savoring it all over again, while all the while making notes and capturing ideas that are flowing much more freely these days. Thank you, Patti, for being such an authentic, delightful, encouraging guide.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Miss This November 21, 2010
By Emma
Format:Paperback
"This is a book about the deeper questions of the ways in which we divide ourselves from our innate creative spirit...and how to walk back toward that space in which every instant is a miracle and an inspiration for artfulness, an opportunity for graceful expression of who we are as humans." (Patti Digh, from Creative is a Verb)

If I'm very honest, I will admit that I saw this book on the shelf and initially passed over it. I wasn't looking for another general book on creativity - whatever I thought that meant.

A series of events led me to actually opening and reading Creativity is a Verb, though, and I can now wholeheartedly say:

This is not just another 'general book on creativity.' This book is truly something different and something you won't want to miss.

Creativity is a Verb is passionate, practical, poetic, and profound.

Patti Digh's writing will open your heart and inspire you in a deep, lasting way. Add to all this the abundant art (on almost every page!) by a wide variety of artists and Creativity is a Verb is a book you'll savor and then want to share with all your friends.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Love this book January 2, 2011
Format:Paperback
It's hard to express how wonderful this book is. It's like food, like air, like a giant tray of rice-kirispie treats except good for you.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Creativity at high speed November 15, 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I absolutely loved this book. I was not familiar with Patti's other books but, if they are all as good as this one, I need to buy them. As someone trying to live a more creative life, there are many obstacles that seem to block your way. Patti has experienced ALL of them and has answers that make sense. Her fast moving style and amazing sense of humour are a bonus. Be warned, this book is not a game, there is work to be done and you will be better for it!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant June 2, 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I couldn't say enough about this book. I started reading it at a low point in my own creative life, and the author's simple and authentic stories about her family life mixed in with creative thoughts just sat well with me. Just about every point made me pause to think and apply to my own daily life. Love this book far too much.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Be a Verb! December 31, 2010
Format:Paperback
Excellent book! I would highly recommend it! I loved it so much I bought one for my adult daughter and best friend for Christmas. It makes you think about being active in your life and creating the experiences that will make you feel whole. Don't just sit around and wait for life to happen. Be a verb!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book
Each summer several people from work meet up and choose a book to read about creativity. This was our choice for this year. Instead of 37 days, we are doing 3-4 sections a week. Read more
Published 2 days ago by J. J. Dehle
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring!
Patti Digh is one smart lady! She puts her heart and soul into her writing. Each chapter has so much inspiration; run, don't walk to get this one!
Published 2 months ago by E. Keane
5.0 out of 5 stars What Fun!
Each page is an lovely artistic delight! What fun to read and to get those creative juices motivated and flowing!
Published 2 months ago by Susan Hammer
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!
Patti Digh has created a fantastic book that can, I believe, help even the people who say "I don't have a creative bone in my body" discover that they are indeed creative. Read more
Published 3 months ago by patti
5.0 out of 5 stars Patti Digh is the best
Patti is so human, so funny, and makes you think outside the box all the time. Great book just like her: Life is a Verb.
Loved it.
Published 22 months ago by Soaring Spirit
5.0 out of 5 stars I rarely take notes while reading a book...
but with this one I have. She has done it again: inspired me to live a fuller life and be more creative. Read more
Published 23 months ago by J. Holmberg
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it.
Like other books that Patti has written, this must be read at a slow enough pace to savor the writing and give the inspiration time to marinate. Beautiful, Thought provoking. Read more
Published on April 7, 2011 by Jambo
5.0 out of 5 stars 5 stars isn't enough!
I love this book and I love Patti Digh. She's real. When I grow up - I want to BE Patti Digh.

Creative Is a Verb: If You're Alive, You're Creative WILL change your... Read more
Published on January 27, 2011 by Dana K. Stevenson
5.0 out of 5 stars Another great book by Patti digh
You will look at everyday things differently after reading any of Patti's books. A skilled writer, perhaps her greatest strength is asking questions that make you think. Read more
Published on January 25, 2011 by Katherine Helms Cummings
5.0 out of 5 stars More than a beautiful book--an experience
It is so easy to live life in the drive-through: hurrying, driven by routines, reacting instead of relating, counting products rather than engaging in processes, un-involved and... Read more
Published on January 24, 2011 by terrab
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