Do you think that commitment requires a lot of determination and discipline, as if commitment comes spectacularly from dint of will? This is not how I see it. Commitment comes not from any kind of determination except for the happenstance of the depth of your desire. Commitment is something that comes your way, and you don't have a say about it. It walks in bidden or unbidden. It’s there, or it’s not.
A great artist by dint of his love for expression has to paint or sculpt. Art is so needful of expression that the artist has no choice. The same for a musician. He must play his flute. A composer must compose. He chooses, yet he has no choice.
A great artist still has to clean his paintbrushes. He cleans his brushes by dint of necessity. Cleaning his brushes is an outer necessity. His art is an inner necessity. The artist of magnitude paints because he cannot help himself. May everyone have such a deep desire within that he or she cannot withstand.
A baby wants to nurse, and a mother wants to nurse her baby. It is no sacrifice to take care of her baby. It is what the mother desires to do.
Of course, many people on Earth live by the sweat of their brow. They have a schedule, and they follow it. They go to work at 8 a.m. and get off work at 5 p.m.
Their dedication comes not from the fullness of their heart yet from a different kind of dedication, perhaps dedication to supporting their families or dedication to eating! Their greater joy may come when work is over. Their joy in sports, for example, might not be so strong if they had all day to do whatever they wanted to – if they knew what that was.
Restrictions also have their gift to give.
It is not everyone who has a great passion. The world needs appreciators too. Art museums require people to come to gaze at its content.
Concerts need people to come for the joy of hearing the music.
In the world that you may not always feel you fit into, there is a place for you, and you serve.
The artist is not thinking: "I must paint in service to the world." He is painting because his love of painting is so great that he cannot help it. At the same time, he is serving the world, and so are you.
Whatever you are doing, you are serving. This is inevitable. You are serving God and man and the world, and you are, therefore, serving yourself.
You may well not get accolades for your service. You are the one who has to know that you serve. Serve well. Serve yourself joy in whatever simple acts you perform.
If your job is to pick up litter in the street, know that you are serving. You do not have to predominantly serve yourself. Your greatest joy may come forthright from serving others. You, of your insular self, are not enough to serve.
Getting back to the great artists and musicians and writers, businessmen and women, designers, hair stylists and so on, sometimes the fire dims, and you move in other directions. This, too, is Life. Seasons change, and sometimes you change as well whether it is your heart’s desire to change or not. Surgeons and musicians alike have injured their hands.
For no known reason, passion can fly the coop. You may go from one passion to another or feel bereft of passion. Life has many facets. All possibilities exist, those you favor, and those you do not.
You also have the opportunity to be where you don't want to be and, at the same time, give joy and reap some too. It is through giving joy that joy greets you. Even in dire circumstances, you can give out Rays of Light and so reap joy and share The Light of God beating to the The Tune of Love.