Keep Creating

        I think that one of my greatest fears is that I will never be able to have any of my writing published. It is a discouraging thought. Sometimes I wonder what I am doing with myself. I wonder if I am only deceiving myself, selfishly following a dream that I have no right to follow, when I could be making myself more useful in another field. I suppose this is a fear that most aspiring artists have at some point; that perhaps, despite their efforts, they will never be recognized. The world is full of brightly burning minds, all competing for attention. Some few will get it. The rest will either work themselves to exhaustion and receive little recognition for their efforts, or will give up entirely and find some more stable enterprise. Their work will fall into some dark crevice and lie there forgotten, and no one will ever know it came into being.
         I find comfort in one thing. When a person has an idea, and breathes life into it, they bring something into the world that was not there before. Perhaps this new thing, whatever it may be-- a song, a poem, a painting-- may never become well-known. Perhaps only a handful of people will ever hear of it, or perhaps no one besides the maker will ever find pleasure in it, but the fact remains that something has been created. This in itself is beautiful and miraculous. 
        There is a line in the song "Subdivisions" by Rush, that says, "some will sell their dreams for small desires." I think it means that some people will give up on the things that matter to them in favour of fulfilling other wants, such as having financial security or fitting in with the people around them. Don't sell your dreams for small desires. Whatever it is that you create, keep doing it. It doesn't matter if you never become “successful” in the worldly sense of the word. If there are dreams in your head, let them out and give them life.