Day 102, April 12

"Our greatest glory is not in never failing ... but in rising up everytime we fail." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson. I love these words. They give comfort and a kick in the pants at the same time. I can't count the number of times I have made the conscious decision to give up writing. Rejection upon rejection convinced me that I had chosen the wrong profession. Even my acceptances result in abysmal pay. Then I remembered: I write because I have to. Some inner need compels me to write. I believe we all have this need to create, to take what is a mass of confusion and make it into something beautiful. In my case, this mass is words. For a sculptor friend, it is clay and wax. For an artist, it is paint and brush strokes. For a musician, it is notes and rhythms. For a mother, it is time and energy and infinite love. Without this inner need and the ability to rise up after failure, DaVinci would not have painted the Mona Lisa; Robert Frost would not have penned his beautiful poetry; Andrew Lloyd Webber would not have composed Phantom of the Opera. So, for today, I am grateful for the need that resides within us all to create.