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

Patti Digh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 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.”

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: skirt!; First edition (October 19, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1599218836
• ISBN-13: 978-1599218830
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #74 in Books > Self-Help > Creativity

More About the Author

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 her a question that she has asked every morning since: "What would I be doing today if I only had 37 days to live?"

Her award-winning blog, 37days.com, emerged from the lessons she learned by asking that question. And her most recent book, LIFE IS A VERB: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally, emerged from that writing when Globe Pequot Press approached her about shaping essays from 37days into a book.

The project took on the feel of a "literary and artistic barn raising" when readers from around the world contributed original works of art to illustrate the 37 essays chosen for the book--and when readers from over 40 cities in the U.S. arranged for Patti to visit their communities for readings from the book.

LIFE IS A VERB was one of five finalists for the prestigious "Books for a Better Life" award and nominated for the "Book of the Year" award by the Southern Independent Booksellers Association.

Patti is a writer, keynote speaker, and social justice activist. And as important as those jobs are to her, the most important job she has is being a mom to two daughters, Emma and Tess. She and her husband, book seller and writer John Ptak, live with their family in the beautiful mountain town of Asheville, NC. In addition to being 7th grade ping pong champ way back when, Patti is a fan of novelist Richard Powers, poet Billy Collins, and a little known movie star named Johnny Depp.

Her new book, CREATIVE IS A VERB, is due out from Globe Pequot Press in Summer 2010 and will also be illustrated by readers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For Those Who Yearn to Live "Fully, Openly, Deeply"--Not To Be Missed, November 21, 2010

By 

O. Brown "Ms. O. Khannah-Brown" (Twopeas, WA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Creative Is a Verb: If You're Alive, You're Creative (Paperback)

*****
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.

This is by far my favorite book by Patti Digh, and one of my favorite books of all, period. Buy this book if you would like to go on your own personal journey to more creativity, but also greater aliveness and a more meaningful and wondrous life.

Highly recommended.
*****

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creative is Possible - for All of Us, November 20, 2010

By 

Lynne Gillis - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Creative Is a Verb: If You're Alive, You're Creative (Paperback)

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.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Miss This, November 21, 2010

By 

Emma - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creative Is a Verb: If You're Alive, You're Creative (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.