Each day in this life is a link in a chain. We have to accept that there will be days when all that matters is to have made it through, to have completed another link so that the chain remains unbroken.
Each day in this life is a link in a chain. A chain that begins somewhere a long way out of sight (and, in all likelihood, out of memory and mind). That chain will end somewhere. If we are very fortunate indeed, that ending is so far down the track as to be out of sight (and, if we are all the more fortunate still, out of mind). We do not know when that final link will come. But come it will.
Between the beginning and the end, it is up to us to do what we will with each link in this chain, each day in this life.
Until that chain reaches its end
I view each post on this little blog of mine as a link in a chain. I have had a blog of my own since 2013. This blog is a valuable creative outlet for me. It gives me a space to explore thoughts and ideas that I might otherwise find it hard to express, and to try to find the clearest words to talk about them. Writing came sporadically at first. But over time my output has become more consistent.
Somehow, I have managed to publish a post every Saturday morning without fail for well over 18 months now. Almost as important as clarifying and expressing my thoughts is the need to continue this chain. Why this should be, I do not know. There is nothing riding on it. But it has become something I both love to do and need to do. Each post becomes a link in the chain. Until that chain reaches its end, as one day it will.
The chain creates its own momentum. Regular writing helps the virtual ink flow more freely from the virtual pen. Ideas beget ideas. Words beget words. But each person who attempts any kind of creative work knows that creativity is by no means predictable. Inspiration can and often does run dry. What should be an enjoyable pastime can feel like pulling teeth. At these times, it feels like the chain is at its end. The last post, the last thing you did, was the final link in the chain.
Creativity will flower again
My friend Dr Steve Marshall perfectly and succinctly describes the paradoxical mystery of the “fleeting, fickle friend” that is creativity in his recent post Empty. It was with a with a growing smile of recognition and much nodding of the head that I read Dr Marshall’s words about the awful feeling that all creativity and all inspiration is gone, never to return. I hate to think that others experience this feeling. But it is oddly reassuring to know that it is not just me. Dr Marshall says that it is important – albeit not always easy – to accept this situation:
“As I slowly, reluctantly, often ungraciously accept that my agency has been taken from me, so creativity returns; ideas bubble up, images and words arise, concepts emerge.”
I love this idea of acceptance. Creativity will always flower again. But it can never be forced. The acceptance that there might never be another link in the chain can, ironically, be what helps usher the next link into existence.
Each day in this life is a link in a chain. We have the choice – should we choose to take it – to focus on making each link in the chain as strong and as well crafted and gleam as bright as we can. But there is no shame if on any given day we do not or cannot take that choice. We have to accept that not all days are created equal. There are so many days in each life when all that matters is to have made it through to the end, to have completed another link so that the chain remains unbroken.
May today be nothing but kind to you and yours.
May each day in this life be nothing but kind to you and yours.
IMAGES
- Floral photography by MJCarty.
- Daisies at Burnham Arthur Hacker via Wikimedia Commons.
- Daisy chain via Wikimedia Commons.
MJCarty 
