I find within me two competing forces when it comes to creativity.  On one side is a real desire to be a creative person, but opposing this on the other side is the countless excuses I come up with for not attempting much.  What is this in me?

O to be a better risk-taker!  Not in the life-threatening-kind-of-way, but in the way I love, encourage, think, dream, invent, support, vision, plan, work, operate, and create.

What if we encouraged this in each other more?  It seems we have a far easier time being far too critical of each other.  I want to be on a mission of encouraging the gifts of those around me.  So, especially for all of you musicians and artists out there -- CREATE!!!  I want hear your songs, see your pieces, and experience your gift.  I want to be your biggest fan!  Seriously.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
-Theodore Roosevelt, The Man in the Arena-April 23, 1910.