You don't have to suffer for your art. You don't have to do anything. Suffering is a choice. Suffering is something you choose.
Suffering is what happens when you choose greed, hatred, and delusion. When you choose craving, aversion, and ignorance. Suffering is what happens when you choose instant gratification, easy satisfaction. When you choose cheap grace over the cost of what it takes to become something more.
Suffering is what happens when you try to avoid the effort. The work. The blisters.
Suffering is what happens when you think you're above it all. When you choose to believe that the rules of sowing and reaping don't apply to you. Suffering is what happens when you choose to think you deserve something you haven't earned. When you fail to recognize that nothing worth anything gets handed out or given away. That nothing comes easy. That nothing is for free.
You don't have to suffer for your art. Suffering is a choice. It's something that you choose.
It's not suffering when you choose the pain over the profit. When you choose the process over the goal. When you choose calluses over tenderness. It's not suffering when you want the hurt more than the reward.
It's not suffering when you love it. All of it. Every-fucking-thing.
You don't have to suffer for your art. Suffering is a choice. It's something that you choose.
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Enjoyed your piece this morning. Suffering is indeed a choice - something believed by many a philosopher (and Murakami - for those of you who haven't read him!). But something I've read alongside these thoughts and theories is that letting go is also an option. I'm not talking full riding bareback, fingers deep in mane, but more a loosening of the reins, allowing something else to take the lead. Something we are not in control of, something, that sometimes knows better and needs to be heard.
Powerful piece. Reminds me of The War of Art. The topic is interesting. It seems the suffering is part of the genesis of the writing. The sensitivity of the writer (that maybe has incubated the suffering) has also led to the big, deep feelings that have needed to find a home.
Expression seems to be the only cure for the tortured artist.
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