To create from joy, to create from wonder, demands a continual discipline, a great compassion. It demands a severity of mind towards all vanity and posturing of the ego that loves its suffering, and clings to its despairs and depressions and fears; it demands a continual objectivity of spirit, a continual looking out at, and beyond, the world created by the senses, towards a spiritual reality, whose lineaments only emerge slowly, after years of experience and meditation. You do not need to stop working, but you need to strive for a new relationship with your work... With time and sincerity you will discover a way to work that does not harm you spiritually, does not tempt you to vanity, that is the deepest expression of your spirituality.
We did not ask for this room or
this music; we were invited in.
Therefore, because the dark
surrounds us, let us turn our
faces toward the light. Let us
endure hardship to be grateful
for plenty...We did not ask for
this room or this music. But
because we are here, let us
dance.
~ Stephen King and Bridget Carpenter in a poem from 11.22.63