express yourself

As someone with an interest in career satisfaction as well as creativity, a favorite book of mine is Carol Lloyd's Creating a Life Worth Living. Described as "a practical course in career design for artists, innovators, and others aspiring to a creative life" (which, to my delight, Lloyd has decided includes people like teachers, consultants, counselors, event planners, etc.), it uses lots of interviews and examples from the lives of various successful creative types.

This morning I opened the book up for the first time in several years, and on the first page found this quote from Martha Graham in a letter to Agnes de Mille:

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. If you block it, it will never exist through any other medium. It will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.

At a time of year when many of us are beginning to think about setting new intentions for ourselves and about making transformations in our lives, this seems like a nice quote to keep in mind.