"An essential portion of any artist's labor is not creation so much as invocation. Pat of the work cannot be made, it must be received; and we cannot have this gift except, perhaps, by supplication, by courting, by creating within ourselves that "begging bowl" to which the gift is drawn. Remember Meister Eckhart: 'It were a very grave defect in God if, finding thee so empty and so bare, he wrought no excellent work in thee nor primed thee with glorious gifts.' "   -- Lewis Hyde (from The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World)

There's a very nice post over on Midori's blog right now, by the way: Childhood's Wounds.