The life you save may be your own

Sometimes I do look back and marvel. Much different than longing, I marvel that I survived being a teenager. Or that any of us do. I guess everyone has their share of near misses and stupid decisions, but they seem to come fast and furiously when you're that age.

I lost a lot of friends when I was just a kid. Car accidents mostly. Every one of them mind-blowingly tragic. A beautiful person no longer on this earth.

Those losses never completely go away. The only way I know to cope with them at all is through writing and art. It's critical for me to celebrate a life with a poem, a painting, a song. . . repairing the circle.

One thing we can always count on is change.

I have this great book by Fred Babb - it's called Go to your Studio and Make Stuff and his philosophy just resonates with me in the same way I dig Socrates and Aristotle. Really.

Here's a quote from Fred Babb: As children reach their teens, some find that the nagging self-doubt of childhood has become a gaping hole. To fill this void, some of these kids will turn to drugs and alcohol. Others will find the arts and fill the hole with large doses of their own self-wonder.

We are all beautiful, and we all have something of value to say.

And I haven't completely overcome the nagging self-doubt thing, either. I just know it now for what it is. And isn't.

I do know art saved and saves and will save me.