Repetition is an opportunity to know something deeper than when you first experienced it. It's why Monet painted over 300 water lily canvases over three decades, why Leonard Cohen took 2 years to write the song Hallelujah, drafting one verse 180 times, Rothko's obsession with stripes, Mondrian's squares. That's what mastery is at its core. Doing something thousands of times over affords you a more intimate relationship with the activity in question: you see more clearly, the practice is deeper and more sacred.

A true practice is one that you repeat whether or not it feels successful or even good all the time. Actually, most times it'll feel sort of useless and very challenging. There's a clear, yawning, empty space between where you are and where you want to be.

You'll spend the rest of your life attempting to close that gap. Yet, a practice is something that you believe in regardless of the certainty of failure and missteps. You return to it again patiently, a disciple of the craft, because it matters to you. Practice can be your version of devotion or prayer to the world.

not mine