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You know..I originally set to accomplish this work and have it finished in about a month. Challenges, deadlines, goals. They're nice things to have now and again. Like people, they have a way of keeping us in perspective, holding us in line, and leading us back on path.

I think it can be very healthy to challenge ourselves now and again. But I also think it is healthy to know when you need to give yourself a little more time too.

The project didn't wrap up in the time frame I had initially set up. Situations happen, work happens, circumstances happen. Life happens. I think the past me would have been crushed. He would have been slapping his head against the wall asking what was wrong with him. Why he couldn't accomplish what he set out to accomplish. That he was a failure, and was only ever going to be a failure.

Art...is my one outlet. It is my one pride. For a lot of us, I think we truly do grow a bond to our work, as our livelihood and last ounce of dignity, our self value. For a time I was terrified of failures and miscalculations. Of misrepresentation and miscommunication through the one medium that justified my value and existence to others. I think we have a lot to prove, but I know we'll only find true happiness when we prove that one thing we desire most to ourselves.

No one or one thing can give you that. No one or one thing can take that away from you either. Only you can give, only you can deny.

..I'm going to finish this project, but I'm not going to rush it. You deserve better, and I deserve better than to feel that needless sense of urgency, as if our time is running out.

Failure is a part of challenge. It is healthy just the same because it only hones us for the next time coming. Some people look at failure as a spotlight into the fate of their lives, that it is the true representation of their merit. Failure...is a stepping stone of progress in the making. Before there are teachers, there are students. Before there is wisdom, there is ignorance. Before there is happiness, there is sadness, even loss.

I guess what I'm trying to tell you is that the way you might be feeling right about now, if you're feeling terrible, if you're hurting and feeling lost..those feelings are real. They matter just like you matter. Maybe you feel like a failure, or a waste of time, or that you don't matter enough to try anymore because you've reached that mark of failure in your eyes.

But I need you to try again. I need you to do your best, even if that means taking a deep breath, listening to some music, having a cup of tea, and maybe picking up the pencil to the paper for a little. Maybe you think you're the only one with a problem in this world. Maybe you feel like everyone will brush you away because it is what you've come to expect. Your emotions and feelings aren't meant to isolate you. They're the one thing that connects us to you, that gives us understanding.

Take your time, but please try and take it. I'll be here with you in the meanwhile.