Someone asked me the other day.
“Why do you do what you do?
Why don’t you get a more traditional job?
Something that makes it easier to pay the bills, without your having to work so hard?
Like me. I work for eight hours at my desk job, then I clock out. I’m done. I go home and enjoy my leisure time.
I mean, yes, art is fun. I enjoy art.
But seriously, that life is for the birds.
The endless struggle stay financially afloat, spending money you don’t have on projects that only maybe a few hundred people will ever hear.
Putting all your energy and resources into creating projects where the best you’re ever going to do with it is maybe break even.
I mean, why would you do this?”
I listened.
I thought about it.
She had a point.
“Well,” I said. “I do it because I can’t NOT do it.
It’s not a choice for me. It’s a necessity.
If I had a choice, maybe I would choose a more straightforward path.
But I’ve never felt like I had a choice.
Except this one.
If this is who I am, how I was built, how I was made, then I choose not to fight or suppress it.
I choose to love it.
To not live life as an artist, as fully and deeply as I can…
This would be like telling a flower not to bloom.
A seed not to sprout.
A bird to never fly.
And the truth is, I am living my dream life.
Right now, I mean.
It’s not a car I’m saving up for.
It’s not a new addition on the house I’ll be able to afford if I’m lucky.
It doesn’t exist far off in the future.
I’m happy NOW.
And this life…
This simple life of music, nature, and connection.
To me… It’s perfect.
I wouldn’t want it any other way.
What about you?
Have you ever had a similar conversation?
How do you feel about your own creative life?
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