You Are Doing Great! No One Told Us How Hard This Would Be!

This will be brief.

Creation is hard. Really, really hard. To create anything that works is a miracle, and I am consistently reminded just how challenging it is to create anything worthwhile – a family, job security, a relationship, a lifestyle, economic stability, or maybe a body your proud of.

It’s just so easy for things to go wrong, and ever so difficult for everything to go right.

We are all creators. What we create differs based on the unique confines of our own lives, but we all share in the challenge of creation. Entropy is real. Things fall apart. Life is filled with tragedy, malevolence, and Resistance at every turn. And no one is free from the law of constant work.

The grass grows back after its cut. The taxes must be paid each year. The tires, no matter how expensive, eventually require rotation.

The fact that anything works is a miracle. Which is why I applaud your efforts. We are each tasked to create a life according to our own desires, needs, and inherent limitations. No life is easy, and no creation comes without great sacrifice, strain, and a little bit of luck.

Remember Teddy’s Wisdom:

“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 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 and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the 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 he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

You are in the arena. Your arena. And that makes you a warrior.

Everyone reading this is tasked with great challenge – whether personal, familial, economic, or existential – we all have a cross to bear.

…and every cross is heavy.

You are creating a life. You are the creator of your life. And creation is freaking hard. You are engaged in a worthy pursuit, whatever that pursuit is for you. I applaud your engagement. I applaud your resolve.

While you may toil in private, know that your pains are shared amongst the public.

Whether you are creating a beautiful home for your kids, a body to fit into that summer bathing suit, or the next great American novel, keep going.

Creation is hard. But so are you.

I wish you a wonderful week of creation.
Chris Matakas