The Song That Must Be Sung

Mirabai sang not because it was expected or rewarded, but because the songs poured out of her necessity. Her love for Krishna was non-negotiable; the songs were how she survived it. When grief is genuine and deep, creative work often has this same quality of necessity. You write because you must. You make because the making is how you stay alive. This is different from crafted, strategic creativity. The work that comes from real loss has an unmistakable authenticity because there's no ego-strategy behind it—only the raw need to externalize what's internal, to make meaning from what threatens to unmake us. If you're grieving and creating, notice whether your work has this quality of necessity. Does it feel like you're choosing to do it, or like you'll break if you don't? The latter is the sign that you're channeling something true, something that only you can express in your unique form.