To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. – Joseph Chilton Pearce

People will be misunderstood. It is human nature. Not everything I say or write will be as clear as the blue-green ocean waters of beautiful Hawaii. And when we are misunderstood (more often than we’d like), it hurts. It hurts like hell and we want to crawl into a small hole and not come out until we feel better. Sometimes, that can take a very long time.

When one does something unconventional or says something highly controversial – and not merely because I say things because I have the right to say whatever I want, but rather, it is something I firmly believe in – people are either with you or they’re against you.

Which one are you?

For instance, you need not enjoy all my writing at Castles in the Air. In fact, that’s how most blogs operate. Every single post doesn’t need to hit close to home. Some certainly will and that is when you feel you are reading the post that is directed right at you, right here, right now. Other times, it’s not applicable at all.

If you find most of your time here is not applicable to your life and you are instead wasting your time here, please do yourself and me a favor by unsubscribing right now. Go ahead. Do it. I won’t be offended.

As for the rest, these are the reasons why I write:

1. Create, don’t hate. I’m a creative, wildly passionate person by nature. Even when I was immersed in business schooling for 6 years and corporate jobs for 5 years post-college, I still longed to create. To fully BE a creative person. I express myself through my artwork (paintings, sketches, doodles) and my writing (non-fiction, literature, fiction, poems, haikus, unintelligible ramblings, etc.).

Art in and of itself is a mysterious force. One cannot explain it thoroughly in the written word. There are natural limitations to our language. And when one sees it or reads it, one may still misunderstand the true purpose or deep meaning behind such work.

And this is okay. It is understandable. You need not love everything you see (Who seriously can say they love every single artwork in their local art museum? You naturally gravitate towards the dynamic works that strike your heart in such a peculiar manner that you are utterly mesmerized and want more.) and will undoubtedly hate certain works, and perhaps, hate the creator behind the work.

Hate is such a strong and defiant word. Before you hate, know WHY you feel the way you feel. It’s all perspective and perception. And perception is reality.

2. Creative writing is a well which I can draw upon in order to quench my artistic spirit. What do you draw upon to find solace, peace and tranquility?

Perhaps it is reading quietly in bed after a long, exhausting day at work. Perhaps it is taking a calming walk outdoors and enjoying nature as it awakens or slumbers. Perhaps it is cooking mindfully and losing yourself in the warm kitchen. Perhaps it is clearing your body, mind and soul as you deepen your Yoga meditation, going further and deeper into the rabbit hole that is in you all along. The hole with which you want to fill. But with what?

You have your means of soothing yourself, of finding inner harmony. And I have mine.

3. Create or perish. I create because I am. I am because I create. If I do not create, I perish.

And that’s the honest-to-goodness, soul-shaking truth. Can you say the same for yourself?