Imperfection

Art is imperfect. Yet it's perfect. Art is a work-in-progress. It's how the process of art makes us feel that's important. The finished product or the idea may be lucrative or attractive to the consumer and even the artist themselves. The real satisfaction of creativity though, lies in the good feeling one gets when one makes something new.

Whether you are cooking something, creating a painting or just decorating and organizing your house, the real reward lies

in the process of doing the work. Getting on the yoga mat, as they say, is half the work done and just showing up for yourself on some days is a win and accounts for a massive amount of self-care.

When one starts writing, the first draft sometimes feels very raw and unorganized. Then, one tries to better it each time one gets back to the piece. Similarly, one starts painting with an idea in mind but once the paint gets mixed and the canvas is in front of the artist, what might get created could be (ans mostly is) different than what one imagined. When it feels like the work is done and one is happy with what they've created, they feel it is now perfect. Maybe to the creator's eyes it is. But it still, in fact, is an improved version of what one started with. So perfection doesn't exist. And it shouldn't even be the aim of any creative activity. What is, is.

A professor of mine in university used to say that you just start writing your assignment. "Just sit down with your laptop in front of you and start typing when you don't know where to start", she said. "Slowly, you add to it every single day and you improve your work. The act of working on it everyday is what will make you feel like you have worked hard on it". When you do the research and put in the work to write a few sentences, time spent doing that is the reward. It makes you feel like you've done enough from your end. Similar is with life and creativity too.

No matter how much one tries to improve it, one can only aim at creating something to the best of one's ability. And that is enough. You are enough. Today is enough. What you can o is enough. That's the greatest lesson art taught me. No matter what little I do or am able to do today in the pursuit of my life or artistic goals, what I do matters. And in that little, awkward, very real and practical space of you feeling like you maybe didn't do enough, life happens and art does too. In the imperfection. In the work-in-progress of it all.

So what you do, matters. Whatever little you are able to do for yourself or others in the right direction, in a positive way, matters. And you matter!