Go to the ant, O sluggard,
Observe her ways and be wise,
Which, having no chief,
Officer or ruler,
Prepares her food in the summer
And gathers her provision in the harvest.
— Proverbs 6:6-8, NASB
perseverance
You Keep Going
To create art is to risk failure. It’s that simple. Some people can’t live with that reality. They want their work to come forth fully formed, Athena emerging from Zeus’ head.
Practice Produces Patience
The problem with practicing the piano is that I know how far my skills have fallen. It’s been years since I played, so the fall isn’t unexpected. I simply have an awareness of how far I have to go if I hope to rise to that level again.
Messages in Bottles
A freelance life, a life in the arts, is sometimes like putting messages in bottles on a desert island, and hoping that someone will find one of your bottle and open it and read it, and put something in a bottle that will wash its way back to you: appreciation, or a commission, or money, or love. And you have to accept that you may put out a hundred things for every bottle that winds up coming back. – Neil Gaiman, “Make Good Art”
Failure is not an Option
While I like the sentiment of “failure is not an option,” I can’t agree with the statement in its entirety. Failure happens, sometimes because of something I’ve done or failed to do and sometimes because of circumstances entirely out of my control. When it does, how will I stand up under it if I live life by the credo “failure is not an option”?
You Will Find You are Strong
The Ents are going to wake up and find that they are strong. – Gandalf
When you’re weary and merely going through the motions of the work you are called to do, you don’t feel strong. You feel weak. You think everybody must know how weak you feel and are.