The Artist's Way

mourn the wounding he had endured as a young writer. He
had to make his peace with the lost years this wounding had
cost him. A page at a time, a day at a time, he had to slowly
build strength.
Like the career of any athlete, an artist’s life will have its
injuries. These go with the game. The trick is to survive
them, to learn how to let yourself heal. Just as a player who
ignores a sore muscle may tear it further, an artist who
buries his pain over losses will ultimately cripple himself
into silence. Give yourself the dignity of admitting your
artistic wounds. That is the first step in healing them.
No inventory of our artistic injuries would be complete
without acknowledging those wounds that are self-inflicted.
Many times, as artists, we are offered a chance that we balk
at, sabotaged by our fear, our low self-worth, or simply our
other agendas.
Grace is offered an art scholarship in another city but
doesn’t want to leave Jerry, her boyfriend. She turns the
scholarship down.
Jack is offered a dream job in his field in a faraway city.
It’s a great job but he turns it down because of all the friends
and family he has where he is.
Angela gets terrible reviews in a terrible play and is then
offered another lead in a challenging play. She turns it
down.
These lost chances often haunt us bitterly in later years.
We will work more extensively later with our artistic U-
turns, but for now, just counting them as losses begins the