“It is 6am and I am working. I am absent-minded, reckless, heedless of social obligations, etc. It is as it must be. The tire goes flat, the tooth falls out, there will be a hundred meals without mustard. The poem gets written. I have wrestled with the angel and am stained with light and I have no shame. Neither do I have guilt. My responsibility is not to the ordinary or the timely. It does not include mustard, or teeth. It does not extend to the lost button, or the beans in the pot. My loyalty is to the inner vision, whenever, and howsoever it may arrive. If I have a meeting with you at three o’clock, rejoice if I am late. Rejoice even more is I do not arrive at all.

There is not other way work of artistic worth can be done. And the occasional success, to the striver, is worth everything. The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power, restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”

By Mary Oliver, in Blue Pastures

Please note: I hear the spirit of this quote, HOWEVER my inner vision INCLUDES responsibilities and consideration of others, where hers apparently did not. I do not believe your inner work need be at odds with your duties in your outer life. Being true to YOUR inner vision is the essential point. Prioritize and make regular room and time for it, whatever it is.

I do not think freedom of focus gives anyone license to be heedless or disrespectful, even while honoring and defending what you are creatively impelled to do. My experience is each of us has the bandwidth for it ALL, if we exercise that capacity, and grow into that reflected power. Then, all your obligations, both inner and outer, will in turn, elevate your art, as reciprocally, your art enhances your life and work.  Being a whole person, which you owe yourself and your Creator, means embracing all aspects of experience, fully, and with the utmost attentiveness.