You are not allowed to fall at the feet of the muse and play victim.
You are called to show up.
To give it time. Commitment. Playmates.
(It isn’t great work because it’s easy.
It’s great work because
it is only yours to do.)
You will fall down
and you will let yourself down.
Without a doubt.
You will get back up
and it will be okay.
Without a doubt.
You will do your work
and it won’t be the thing everyone understands,
or the thing Grandma wishes you would do,
or the thing your partner keeps pushing at you to make a few extra bucks.
It’s the thing you deny;
the thing you run from,
the whisper you pretend doesn’t exist
so you can get through one more day.
It calls to you.
Softly. Loudly. At inopportune moments.
When you’re sleeping and when you’re fresh from dreamland.
In the shower, on the subway, in line at the store.
It will be a struggle. It will be simple and complicated all at once,
like doing cartwheels in your underwear when you should be Adulting
or skipping out on responsibility to make art that feels like running through the rain.
It will be, quite simply, worth it.
—
This week on That’s What She Said, we take a brief journey to find out what our work in the world has to say to us, then circle back around and I share what was revealed to me during the process.
Listen in below or subscribe so you never miss an episode.
P.S. More of my poems live here.
