Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic amd fear which is inherent in the human situation.  
      - Graham Greene, novelist

The purpose of a journal is to explore –- explore new concepts, new visions, explore fears and explore one’s relationship with oneself. A journal offers a connection to our interior world, to ideas and concepts just beyond our grasp. 

A journal isn’t a finished work. As artists, we work out vague concepts in our journals. We experiment with loose sketches, quick watercolor washes. Journals are meant to include mistakes. Dig deep into the essence of your life and your art in your journal. Go down blind alleys. Search for what it all means. Don’t be critical. Have the courage to fail. Above all else, the rule is to not give up. Keep pushing the envelope. Keep pushing your comfort zone.

I offer here, as naked as I’m prepared to be, the self-doubt, the struggles, the lessons learned during a life that has encompassed both major success and major failure. And like all lives, it includes both joy and sadness. Loss. Lots and lots of adventures in wilderness, in business, in love. 

It is my nature to want to start at the end, to offer a conclusion at the beginning. So what have I concluded over the sixty-seven years? What’s the major lesson learned?

Have faith in your uniqueness. Faith is hard. It’s the price though of a life fully lived. Life is precious, time is precious. Have the grit and persistence to see your uniqueness through. Grit and persistence come from faith. If it's the right path, your unique path, your path that offers to the world the best you have in you, doors will open. You will know you are on it when you feel really alive.

On your path, you make your unique contribution. We need that from you.

Search for the thing that is searching for you.

Nowhere and never and now and forever
I look for a thing that is looking for me.
     -   Sydney Carter

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The excerpt above is from the recent Heron Dance Press book, Nurturing The Song Within.