Try Something!

Hello again. If you read my earlier post this month, you know my theme for the year is "try." Well, what have I tried in the last three weeks? I had a trying time filling out a federal form. And I tried to keep warm during very cold weather for this part of West Texas. But that's not what I'm really looking at when I think of trying something. Making a different type of paper flower or trying a new art journal technique is more what I have in mind. 

As I looked at the positive and negative forms of the words, I remembered a very trying time long ago as I tried something new. Now, those of you that know me, know that I can do some very intricate work; I knit lace, I cross-stitch on 22-count cloth, I work with seed beads. Years ago, though, I could not tie my shoes.

Seriously, my poor mother spent hours trying to teach me and it just wasn't going to happen. It made absolutely no sense to me. Now, I know it must have been very frustrating to my mother. This was in the days before Velcro fasteners and I wore corrective shoes that tied. I was seven years and could not tie my shoes.

One weekend, I visited my cousins and spent the night there. The next morning, my Aunt Ann showed me a  new way to tie my shoes. I'm sure she had to show me several times but I left there knowing how to tie my shoes. What was the difference between her method and my mother's? I have no idea. There was no silliness about rabbit ears or anything like that. Whatever it was it worked. 

What I learned from that encounter, although I certainly couldn't articulate it at the time, is that sometimes if you are having a hard time learning something, maybe it's not your lack of talent or it's not the thing for you. Maybe it's the teacher. I learned many things from my mother but tying my shoes was not one of them.   

Here's the other thing to be aware of. Sometimes, you just need to keep trying. Conventional wisdom relates that one needs 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. Even experts can improve. How? Go visit your Aunt Ann. Read a new book about your subject area. If you're the author of the number one ranked book in your field, read the second. In this wonderful era of the Internet, make a point to see what else is out there both in your area and others. If your specialty is metal work, check out what fiber artists are up to. Keep current. Keep fresh. Keep trying.