When I was walking out to the mailbox, I caught sight of the yellow roses in my yard. Beautiful! It was only when I got closer that I could see the huge weeds around them!
The photo seems like an apt metaphor for my weekâbeauty surrounded by
weeds. I've been frustrated with trying to create some design submissions for a magazine.
Everything I
tried seemed ho-hum. I kept stringing and unstringing beads. The piles of design "weeds" kept growing until I had a workspace that was less than six inches square. I contemplated a last-minute run to the bead store, since
none of the beads seemed to be "working."
Finally, two days before my deadline, I started seeing how certain beads looked
good together and I created two necklaces I really loved. It was like my creative "on" switch was finally working.
In his book, If
You Can Talk, You Can Write, Joel Saltzman calls this, "Blah,
blah, blah . . . GOLD!" In other words, the more you write or design or
do whatever it is you do, the better your chances are at getting
something good. You might not come up with anything terrific the first
time you sit down at your design table or desk, but if you show up day
after day, eventually you will.