This quote reminds me of my favorite children’s books, Arm in Arm by Remy Charlip. In it, there’s a story of a man who paid a painter to make him a painting of a fish. After waiting a year and receiving nothing, the man goes to the painter and asks for his painting. The painter puts a canvas on the easel and whips off the most beautiful painting of a fish the man has ever seen. “If it was so easy, why didn’t you do it sooner?” he asks. In answer, the painter opens a closet door and hundreds of paintings of fish fall out.

What looks like a magical gift is often a combination of perseverance and practice.