Devotion is not the same as obsession, though they share a family resemblance. Obsession is possessive. Devotion is willing to let the beloved remain unknown.
I am devoted to ballet. I say this plainly because devotion deserves plainness. I have watched recordings of Sylvie Guillem so many times that I can no longer say what surprises me. And yet something still surprises me every time.
The Discipline
The discipline of devotion is to keep showing up. To the barre, to the page, to the person, to the question you cannot yet answer. Not because you believe the answer is coming, but because you have decided the showing-up matters more than the arrival.
Frida Kahlo painted herself in pain. This was devotion to the truth of experience. The flowers in her hair were not decorative; they were a statement that beauty and suffering can coexist without apologising to each other.
