Live Your Truth

There is one rule, though: once you discover your truth, you have to go all in. Fully. Every single chip. That is when the shift happens. As if there’s a force in life waiting for us to make the decision, to commit, jump off that cliff. Then life breathes a deep sigh and opens the gates, fills the sails.

The desire was to write down what I know that works — what makes me healthy, what makes me productive, what fulfills me, the basics of what makes my life zing — and then live it.

Do all artists have to suffer? Part of me resists when I ask the question. I don’t want the answer to be yes. But I let go, and the answer, instead, is of a different sort. They have to experience. To live and experience life fully because when you create art, if it’s not true and real, you know.

If ever in pain, I think the best thing we can do is to create something. A record. Not of pain, but of what is real. Pain doesn’t last. And when it’s gone, we have something to show for it. Growth. And because it is a human experience, it is of value. Something we can share with others.

Our ability to love and create — that alone makes this entire experiment worthwhile.

The simple act of putting your truth on paper, only you and your thoughts, it is one of the most powerful exercises you can do.

I so often forget the lessons. So I write for him. A guide, perhaps, to the future. To the self that will one day look back and nod, knowing.

If you think about it, how much time do we spend in our heads wishing things were another way, beating ourselves up, beating others up, crafting a different past, wishing for a different future? All of that is resistance. All of that is pain.

Peace is saying to yourself, “it’s ok.” Peace is knowing that the maze the mind plays in is not the truth. Peace is knowing that life is. Just is. How we choose to react to it determines our reality.

The insights we receive when going silent, it’s our gift to ourselves. Returning and living them, sharing them, that is our gift to the world.