the writer (me)

What if criticism isn't a verdict but just another form of documentation? What if the fact that someone bothered to write about your work—even negatively—is evidence that you've created something that demands a response?

The other day I saw a picnic table under a tree, and it stopped me.

God made the tree. People made the table.

It reminded me of what T.D. Jakes once said: God didn’t make tables, He made trees — and He gave you a brain to imagine what those trees could be.

That table was a “creation from creation.” And it’s not just furniture — it’s a setting for

Creativity is sacred, and it is not sacred. What we make matters enormously, and it doesn’t matter at all. We toil alone, and we are accompanied by spirits. We are terrified, and we are brave. Art is a crushing chore and a wonderful privilege. Only when we are at our most playful can divinity finally get serious with us. ELIZABETH GILBERT

You're never as good as you're going to be after more practice, and you're always better than you were the day before or the week before or the decade before. This is normal and natural. You will always be in a constant state of improvement (if you're doing it right), forever, until you drop dead (which I hope is a long time in the future for