The self is always under construction. The multiplicity of selves is what allows change.*
Peter Turchi

Find your own unique voice by studying the voices of the past (both distant and recent), and then moving beyond that into your own world. It will take time – there’s no way of forcing it; but I’m convinced it is the only road to greatness.**
Steven Isserlis

The illusion makes it possible for me to appear as somebody I am not, or for something to appear to be there that is not:

Whatever the details, that character is every magician’s first illusion.*

It promises to be the shortcut of shortcuts, except there is no way of speeding things up being me and what I hope to offer.

The journey, on the other hand, by its very nature takes longer. A unique voice requires us to look within and it needs its own language, but a language cannot develop overnight:

Beauty calls us beyond ourselves and it encourages us to engage the dream that dwells in the soul.^

This journey into our soul is the longest one of all.

Writing about a growing self-awareness movement, my friend Sam wonders whether we’re ready for it being the painful and difficult thing it is:

I’m not convinced there’s an awful lot of actual self-awareness taking place! True self-awareness cannot be captured in an Instagram quote. It’s not an opportunity to convey strength and growth via phoney vulnerability. … But how many of us are committed to that lifelong expedition of true self-discovery about ourselves.^^

So I will continue on my slow journey in the same direction so that in the slowness new things will come, a language will develop, and a voice will be found.

*From Peter Turchi’s A Muse and A Maze;
**From Steven Isserlis’ Robert Schumann’s Advice to Young Musicians;
^From John O’Donohue’s Divine Beauty;
^^From Sam Bradford’s blog: The superficial self-awareness movement.