So the weeks just keep sliding by and here we are almost into the last week of April! I’ve been doing well in keeping up with my weekly calligraphy posts for my door, but have to remember to keep posting them to this blog. This week’s quote to share is from Ray Bradbury and is something that we all need to remember as we create our art and lives.
“You can’t try to do things; you simply must do them.” Ray Bradbury
This quote reminds one of my friends of Yoda’s “Do or do not; there is no try.” As for me, I’m also reminded of part of Neil Gaiman’s speech, “Make Good Art,” when he talks about pretending to be able to do something but not just pretending to do something.
I think too often we say, “I’m going to try to [insert whatever good thought or intention you have here]” instead of saying, “I’m going to do [x].” I know it happens to me a lot and I’m trying to be more conscious about it and change what I say. I do believe that we make time and take the energy to do what is important to us and so should be true in saying what we will do and won’t do. (There’s also a whole other lesson about learning to say no to unwanted time sinks, but that’s for another post.)
So I hope that you have the courage to simply do things, whatever things those may be. That you aren’t kept up at night by wondering about the “what ifs,” but instead sleep soundly from a day of good work. Let’s all go boldly into whatever journey we want and remember to help each other along the way because doing things is hard and it is nice to have some company on the way.
I leave you with the video recording of Gaiman’s, “Make Good Art,” speech. It always brightens my day (the book designed around the same speech is also lovely).
