Drops Like Stars

A few thoughts on creativity and suffering...

The art of honesty.  Pain has a way of making us more honest.

"...I hadn't learned yet the importance of letting the empty place inside me open up."

"And so we're polite and we play by the rules and when asked how we are, we answer 'I'm fine, thank you,' just like we're supposed to...

And then we suffer.

There's a disruption

And our boxes get smashed

And the insulators are removed

And the pretense is shattered

And the "empty place" inside of us opens up."

The art of the ache.

"And then we hear something born of suffering and adversity and we're moved because it's honest.  It's real.  It means something."

The ache is universal.

"The ache reminds us that things aren't how they're supposed to be.  The ache cited through all the static, all of the ways we avoid having to actually feel things.  The ache reassures us that we're not the only ones that feel this way."

"Suffering...It compels us to eliminate the unnecessary, the trivial, the superficial."

"There is greatness in you.  Courage.  Desire. Integrity.  Virtue.  Compassion.  Dignity.  Loyalty.  Love.  It's in there-- somewhere. 

And sometimes it takes suffering to get that.

It's in there."