This is a stunning piece that everyone needs to read. You are a stunning human being. I love you my friend BECAUSE of your faults not INSPITE of them.

Refer to Ken Robinson TEDTalk and wonder what the world would be like if none of us tried.
[rq=789221,0,blog][/rq]What Is Local To You?

Once when I was in a grammar school art class, we were paired off and told to draw each other’s portraits. I am intensely creative in many ways, but drawing is not one of them. I have to work really, really hard at it. So I was particularly proud of my factual representation of my subject’s face and her unfortunately large nose. She cried. She cried, and the nun took a dark, thick, black pencil and narrowed the nose on my perfectly shaded, delicate grey pencil drawing. This was the same girl who had claimed in music class (and as the music teacher’s daughter, she must be believed,) that my original musical composition was not, in fact, original.

Both incidents affected my belief in my own creative abilities for much of my life. Those first life lessons, on the blank canvas of a child’s psyche, leave deep and lasting impressions. So after raising four children of my own, I went to art school, and have discovered (after three years and thousands of dollars,) that I am a much better writer than artist. But I had to try. I had to answer the “what if” that had plagued me for so many years, to satisfy the artist, and free the writer within. And through the art, I have come to understand myself a little more.

I think that, even if you’re not exactly sure what you’re “meant to be,” if you take a step in any direction and start working hard at something, putting heart and soul out there, that whatever it is that you’re perfect at doing, it will find you. John Lennon went to art school. Paul Gauguin was a stockbroker. Maya Angelou was a fry cook. It takes time, but eventually your passion will find you, when the richness of your past experiences can make the most of it.
[rq=778026,0,blog][/rq]lakew00d: Voted for Pete: 30 Under 30. Is it bad that he’s the only one I knew? RT @mashable Survey:Inc Magazine & Pete Cashmore http://bit.ly/32qZv7

I’m incredibly fortunate in that I’ve always been able to write. My style / voice has changed as I found my footing in every other respect but I’ve always been able to write.

The interesting journey for me has been my experience working in communications. One of my bread-and-butter skills is my ability to adopt the voice of who I’m writing for. The reality of the comms guy’s life is that I rarely write for myself. In my current gig, I have no fewer than three ‘voices’ and I’m able to switch between them pretty seamlessly. The foundation of the writing is the same but the nuance changes. For example, I know the president of my org likes folksy words and phrases mixed in. I seem to be able to do this in a natural way.

The byproduct of this chameleon-like writing style, though, is that I sometimes wonder what my own voice sounds like these days.

My blog often goes neglected for long periods of time because I’m just too tired of writing when I get home. When I do start to write posts, more times than not I lose my momentum and can’t finish a post.

That’s a new phenomenon. And I don’t like it.
[rq=763341,0,blog][/rq]On the outside looking in

And you’re spot on about the folly of making perfection the goal, because even that is subjective. Trying to find one’s own gifts and use them well… that’s worth doing. Thank you for the reminder!
[rq=762660,0,blog][/rq]Guest Post: Being Pretty