Sigh. This post/topic brings back memories during my Business school days, when my profs would get all pumped up about different approaches to selling widgets, and all I'd do is doodle guitars, and think of cool lyrics. It's been a struggle, but to date, most of my creative ventures haven't sold a single widget. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Thank you for posting this!

On a day when frustration reigns, when my students have nit-picked the littlest things, when promises have been broken and I'm ready to find something less stressful to pay the mortgage, your post lands in my mailbox. It made me sob and reminded me why I sit here and continue beating my head against the wall.

Twenty-five years ago when my marriage broke up, when my friends and children rejected me, when my church wouldn't accept a divorced woman, when I had no where to turn to for solace, I took a long, quiet walk in the woods. I found peace there and quiet acceptance and the hope I longed for. I returned to that forest week after week to feed my soul as I mended all the broken places and gaping wounds. And when life finally turned around, I made a promise that to the best of my ability, I would find a way to provide a place of solace for others who may need the same, unbiased acceptance and hope for their future.

And so, day after day, making small progress and much more set-backs, I continue to try to change my little place on this earth.

I use whatever creativity I've been given to find methods around the obstacles, fresh approaches that could move the project toward completion. I sketch and write to keep my own fires burning ... and I turn to stories like this, too, to remember why I do what I try to do.

Thanks Trevor. Thanks Danny.

Thank you Trevor, and thank you Danny.

This is such a great reminder to be real. To live the real life.

This story brings up a lot of issues for me. I often wonder how useful I am as a creative person in this world. We make beautiful objects/images that are out of the reach of so many.
I am seriously considering running a weekly art workshop for women with depression or post natal depression. Although I do worry about the impact it will have on my struggling art practice. I am trying to juggle motherhood, art and part-time web design, to pay the bill$, etc. I think this common predicament might also be why there are less "successful" women artists (that is making it in the art world/gallery scene).

Great interview. It brought tears to my eyes. It really is brave to do what you love.

As the tears stream down my cheeks, I can only thank you for sharing . . . and being wonderful. Cheers to Trevor who took the bold step and decided to make a difference, for the little boy and for himself, and for other children. Since I have had my two little ones, that switch in my soul has flipped too. This story is great motivation for me to find a way to make a difference.

Love the people in front of you...

This is a very powerful story about listening to that still small voice that matters more than the mighty roar of the world. It brought tears to my eyes. I'm not working in advertising, but I am in a mostly mind-numbing, impersonal work environment, and I am starting out on a more meaningful career path (training to be a shiatsu practitioner) which is going to mean lots of hard work, less certainty, an irregular salary, but I want to do it because it feels right, because all of me will be involved in the work and I won't have to keep hugely vital parts of myself suppressed for 35 hours a week, week after week, month after month, year after year. We only get one life, don't we want to make it matter for the right reasons?

Wow! I am moved to tears. What a story! What a reason to follow your dream! What a waste if you hadn't! Thanks so much for sharing this Mr. Gregory!!!! Thanks for this site and all the inspiration it provides!

Thanks Danny and Trevor. Thanks for following your dream and to your ability to deeply listen to what is real and what has purpose. It isn't always the easy road with it's material gain, but the fullfilling road that gives us joy.

Wow. I am in tears. That is an amazing story... thank you so much for sharing it.

Thank you Danny for passing along this story to us. And thank you Trevor for letting life, the REAL life that we're meant to be living, take over that day in Africa so that you could live the life of your dreams and have a story to tell that would inspire others to keep pursuing their own dreams and passions! Wonderful!

What an incredible story! My eyes were welling up with tears reading it. I can relate to your experience of reaching a certain point in Life and realizing that a change HAS TO take place. Maybe by returning to the original dream or by creating a new goal. This has been one of the BEST posts I have read,Danny and Trevor. Thank you!

Thank you so much for sharing your heartfelt story....

In choosing compassion and what is truly nobel, you chose yourself as well!

I broke out on my own about 4 years ago, after working in a Laboratory for 9 years, doing research, sitting in fluorescent lighting, Monday thru Friday...which was somewhat rewarding, but didn't make my "soul sing".

I finally was forced to leave that career, as I stayed so long, I got physically sick...

I now see that illness, as such a gift, as it propelled me to remember what it was, I am truly passionate about, something that left me as a young girl, my creative connection.
I have been watercolor painting ever since, and it feels so real, so right.
Your story touched me so, as the young boy seemed to also mirror the child within, who to me, knows what is real, knows the truth, knows his soul's passion, and follows it!
What a concept!
Thank you again for reminding me, why I am doing what I am doing, something "real", to me!

That precious little boy will always remember the soldier who was so kind to him, but he will never know how many people he has blessed through the medium of this page. Thank you Trevor for responding to him and for writing about this moment so eloquently, and thank you Danny for passing the story along.

I’m glad, naturally, that Trevor made this change in his life. But given the incident which inspired him eventually to do so I also believe he is devoting some of his life to—it sounds so hokey—that greater cause, helping others/helping make this sad world a better place. Living “the life of your dreams and [having] a story to tell that would inspire others to keep pursuing their own dreams and passions” (to quote another comment) is very good; among those “dreams and passions” are the ones regarding people other than yourself, your loved ones, people like yourself.

PLEASE NOTE: I think that because Trevor was moved by the boy who’d lost his legs, and recounted the story to us, that he is indeed working in some way for others, and does not want to seem boastful about it. Anybody remember Dr. Hudson’s Journal, that odd book describing a philosophy in which doing good works could bring one good in life, *as long as* one did the good works secretly. No bragging or collecting awards. Do it with pure heart for its own sake, for the sake of those suffering. And truly it does enrich your life, but don’t expect it to show in your bank account!

This piece brought tears to my eyes and reminds me of my days as a news reporter, smarting every day to get free. I finally did and am living a creative life now, but it wasn't easy to get here. The soul must be heeded.

I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes. I will email you with my story. Kudos to this man - true character won out.

thanks for sharing that. i wonder where the wee boy is now. i'm glad trevor has found a good, and worthwhile path.

I'm still crying as I write this. What a reminder to us all to be thankful for our lives, and not let anyone steal our creativity from us. That poor little boy. I'm glad you held him, Trevor. This is so well written, by the way.

Artists have always had to work day jobs in order to support their lives as artists. The fact that some of us sell a bit of our souls to work in advertising (and get paid so much more than artists who work as gallerists, security guards, shop girls and whatever else it takes to pay the rent) is kind of beside the point.
Maybe we go into this industry thinking that it will give us an outlet for our creativity. It does and it doesn’t. We get a little too cozy with our material possessions and find it hard to give up the security of weekly pay checks. But if you need that weekly paycheck, as most artists do – well, would you rather get paid a little or a lot?
I’ve found the balance by being a freelance writer. I don’t work full time, but I have a steady gig on the client side (after one too may all nighters on the agency side). I don’t get benefits, but I have the time and energy to keep focused on my art career.
My advertising background has stood me well in terms of dealing with rejection and self-promotion. Still, someday, I promise myself, I will throw away the weekly pay to pursue art full time. That is, just as soon as someone else takes over paying the bills.
Most of the artists I know who are able to devote themselves full time to their art career have a husband, wife or significant other who is supporting them financially as well as emotionally.
At the end of the day, and the beginning for that matter, you've got to count your blessings. There's always someone better off. There's always someone worse off. We've got to do what what we can to express the creativity we were blessed with. It really doesn't matter if we earn a living from it or not. It matters that we do the work, make the art, be the artists that we are.

I am afraid I do not know the author, but someone said:

"You can know the creator by what he creates."

I believe this is true. By reading these words this man has found himself and is being true. Those who view his art/work will know him through it, where before they knew him as the lie that he was producing for a company. Produce a lie, become a lie. Produce your heart, become your true self.

Awesome interview, I look forward to more.

That was so moving. Thank you so much for that powerful reminder. Its really about sharing your love. I think the human animal is made to connect in love, its when we are happiest. We just get so sidetracked from it because we don't believe its possible to live that way. We have such trouble believing things can work like that. And ultimately it doesn't matter whether they can work like that or not because its just not worth it any other way. What is the point of being alive if we don't love life, those around us, our work, etc. That precious little boy is each and everyone of us. He is life.