The Book of Lost and Found

by Lucy Foley

I think it often happens like this. You wait, and hope, until eventually the hoping seems in vain and the thing you wish for begins to seem impossible. You try to forget, to move on. And sometimes, once you have gone through this painful process, by some peculiar alchemy, it happens.

To truly create, to innovate, you cannot care about the sensibilities you may offend. You cannot mind that some people—your own mother, perhaps—will violently dislike your work. Do you understand?”

Because, if the nature of the work is right, there is great reward to be found. The feeling that one has a place in the world, that one is useful in some small way, is not to be underrated.