“Do more of what lights your soul on fire.”

That is the intriguing quote on the cover of my new journal. It is the reason I was drawn to it.

The verb do suggests action, enthusiasm, movement. This is not talking about binge-watching your favorite show or YouTubers, or spending hours on social media debating the latest national catastrophe. This is not about hiding, curled up in fetal position, waiting for life to draw you out. This is talking about action.

How do you know what “lights your soul on fire”? There are no set rules, but artists seem to understand it better than others. The thing that lights the soul on fire is the thing you can’t live without. As a writer, I have to write. I have no choice. If I don’t write I feel incomplete, cranky, and on the brink of losing molecular cohesion. If I don’t write frequently enough I become restless, nudgy, and irritable.

The motto on the front of my journal is a universal truth. Even if you aren’t an artist, there is something that grabs your attention completely. When you are engaged in that activity, you live in your own world for a time. It is an escape. It is creativity. It is necessary. Time passes without notice. You are utterly engaged mind, soul, and body. It takes you to a place where you are enveloped, engrossed, and nourished.

That is why the quote needs to be recognized. Spend more time doing that thing which lights your soul on fire. It is good for the imagination, your mental health, your spiritual life. Do it because life is too short to allow the “every day” to obliterate that magical state of being. Creativity is valuable. There is more to the process than the outcome of something of esthetic value.

The light that puts fire in the soul, it is intangible and invisible. It exists for a reason. I have read that creativity gives a boost of positivity. And who couldn’t use a healthy dose of that right now?

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use the more you have.” — Maya Angelou