Free Will and the Artist

I am a big fan of freewill. Fate I think can play a role sometimes, but if you are waiting around for it to drop something in your lap, you'll be waiting a long time. Take this quote from Henry David Thoreau:

"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor."

-Henry David Thoreau

Fervently pursuing your goals and your happiness is the only way to achieve your dreams, even if this means doing it in whatever little spare time you have left of the day. When you open doors for yourself and put forth the effort to reach out and grab what you want, then fate might play a helping hand. It's Vince Lombardi who said, 'luck is when opportunity meets preparation.'

This also ties in with the idea of deciding who you want to be rather than finding yourself. You cannot possibly achieve what you want if you do not have a clear vision of what that is. Once that vision is formed, then the process of it becoming true can begin.

Henry David Thoreau's Walden

For me, there are few wiser writers than Henry David Thoreau. I particularly enjoy his (what is commonly called) Civil Disobedience and also Walden. Let's look at a quote from Walden:

"It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof. What every body echoes or in silence passes by as true to-day may turn out to be falsehood to-morrow, mere smoke of opinion, which some had trusted for a cloud that would sprinkle fertilizing rain on their fields. What old people say you cannot do you try and find that you can."

-Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), Walden.

His words ring brightly as true today as when they were written, like a shining beacon for all to hear. In the preceding passage he says, "No way of thinking or doing however ancient can be trusted without proof." A lot of religions boast faith has a necessary attribute, and this is precisely the problem. My spiritual wisdom comes from a place that needs no faith. I know it exists and can not tell you the way, but can show you the door that you can open to see the truths for yourself. No faith required.