I recently heard/read two very different people express a very similar idea.
First, a visual artist called Anselm Kiefer is quoted in last Saturday's Times newspaper: "...determination is the first condition of the artist: determination and endurance and defiance and never giving up."
Then, the playwright, screenwriter and director, Murray Watts, tells us why artists should never give up (over on YouTube).
I think they are both talking about people with an artistic calling, let's say. Murray (I can call him that because I've met him!) is encouraging people to persevere as actors, painters, musicians and writers even if it means having to live a very simple lifestyle. Poets have it best, he says, because everybody knows you can't make a living as a poet so you have to have a day job.
But they made me think about this quote from Brené Brown, a wonderful researcher and author, whose work on vulnerability and wholeheartedness as the keys to a good life has been hugely influential. I noted this from her book, The Gifts of Imperfection years ago: "Unused creativity is not benign."
I doubt many of us would identify as artists, but we can all be creative, maybe we all need to be creative. And it doesn't have to be painting, writing or playing a musical instrument. I think cooking, gardening, crafting, DIY and fashion (and many other things) can all be creative enterprises.
Is there something creative you used to do that you don't do now? Is it time to dig out those paints or tune up your cello?