"Must I write?" (A question to ask myself)

This afternoon I stopped by a local coffee house on my lunch break and ran into Casey, a local artist I regularly see around my city. He is also an entreprenuer. He talked to me about how he decided to go into business for himself in ways that could support his family (wife and two children) and fulfill what he feels is his "calling." I told him how much I admired such commitment. We talked for awhile and he told me about the times when things get tough and how one has to just push through them with faith, creativity, and determination. The conversation left me with hope and the knowledge that I had some "soul-searching" to do and some commitments to make.

Call it confirmation, but later this afternoon, I paid a visit to the website of another local artist I admire. On his website he wrote a journal entry about his recent decision to live intentionally and focus exclusively on producing music which means that he would also be forced to let go of a majority of other commitments he had picked up in recent years. In his journal entry he cited a passage from the writings of Ranier Maria Rilke that had a profound impact on his thinking during this transitional phase of his life. Rilke's words also resonated with me as I go through my own risky period of transition and growth.

Yes, quiet time is needed to figure these things out.
Yes, risks are involved in such decisions.
Yes, we must listen to that voice deep within us.
Yes, we must find an answer and build our lives around it.

Ranier Maria Rilke writes,

"This above all-ask yourself
in the stillest hour of the night: must I write?
Delve yourself for a deep answer.
And if this should be affirmative,
if you may meet this earnest question
with a strong and simple "I must,"
then build your life according to this necessity;
your life even into its most indifferent and slightest hour
must be a sign of this urge, and a testimony to it.
Then draw near to Nature.
Then try, like some first human being,
to say what you see and experience and love and lose."