“There are no short cuts to any place worth going.” ~Beverly Sills

A writer tosses away more words than he keeps.

An artist paints over countless canvases.

A dancer falls a thousand times.

A pianist does scales every day, a skater skates every day, a singer sings, a teacher teaches.

As a friend of mine once remarked, “There’s no room for perfection on the road to excellence.”

If you have a dream, a hope, or a wish, know that not only are there no short cuts, there are also no guarantees. You might fail.

Or succeed.

Or maybe it was practice for something better, something you would never have seen save for trying something else.

Maybe it’s ALL practice, all of it, everything you do each and everyday.

There’s a little poem I like by Donna Stone:

“The most visible creators are those artists whose medium is life itself.
The ones who express the inexpressible—without brush, hammer, clay, or guitar.
They neither paint nor sculpt. Their medium is simply being.
Whatever their presence touches has increased life. They see, but don’t have to draw…because they are the artists of being alive…”

Maybe there is such a thing as becoming “an artist of being alive.”

If you practice.

And maybe that’s a place worth going.