Martha Graham on Divine Dissatisfaction

I was reading some jazz criticism yesterday and began to feel inadequate. There is a certain type of jazz pedagogy that hinges on negativity, I think. I suppose in that way I might be lucky I never went to music school (other than my brief, gloriously positive experience in Cuba). Just now I found the antidote. I first saw it in an inspirational booklet Madeline Eastman composed for vocalists:

"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening
that is translated through you into action,
and because there is only one of you in all time,
this expression is unique.

If you block it,
it will never exist through any other medium
and be lost.
The world will not have it.

It is not yours to determine how good it is;
nor how it compares with other expressions.
It is your business to keep the channel open.
You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work.
You have to keep open and aware directly
to the urges that motivate you.

Keep the channel open.
No artist is ever pleased.
There is no satisfaction whatever at any time.
There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction;
a blessed unrest that keeps us marching
and makes us more alive than the others."

--Martha Graham to Agnes De Mille