TiP fOr TuEsDaY (post 187)

Develop your talents.

"Is there anything you can't do?", my friend C. queried, wide-eyed in amazement. I was standing over a canvas squinting to make sure the coloration was right, brush in midair. When she rang the doorbell a few minutes earlier, I presented her with a Christmas basket with a crocheted hat for her daughter and a bag full of homemade oven caramel corn. I chuckled, dismissing the notion, "Of course!". As I think about the exchange, I remember all the times she has come over where I'm cooking something, sewing something, playing something on the piano and I get why she asked. I consider myself well-rounded, but a master at a particular talent? Nah. We've had a very frugal year this last year and I've found myself sequestered in the confines of my house due to lack of funds a lot. You can't have any fun without any money though, right? Au contrare, my blog reading friends! I've used the last 9 months of unemployment to develop my talents.
I grew up in a very small town, this has some advantages such as: it was safe, um...it was quiet? Um, okay so the advantages aren't many in number. Unless your idea of fun was hanging out at the local lake and drinking and being stupid, you had a limited amount of things to keep you occupied. My best friend and I rode our bike to the library every week during the summers, we rode our bikes to the pool too and when we hung out at home we learned how to make stuff. We got ideas from books and whatnot and her Mom would set up her sewing machine and taught us to sew a little. As I got older, I took electives in Middle School and High School and learned to play the flute, learned the basics of cooking, took beginning and advanced sewing. I learned the basics of crocheting, of embroidery, of applique. I was on the Yearbook staff for three years and learned how to take good pictures, to write-up short articles, to crop pictures and create layouts.
Aside from the ability to play piano by ear, to read and compose music, I learned the basics as a preteen and teenager and have taken the time to develop those talents as an adult. When I hear, "I'm not good at anything" it drives me nuts! There is no such thing as having no talent. Saying you have no talent is like saying. "I have zero interest in anything" and unless you are a slug, that simply can't be true. Developing a talent is basically just pursuing an interest and if you haven't developed one yet, then why not? Blah, blah...I don't have time. I know that excuse well, I'm a Mom too! Even if you take a class once a week, think of it as Mommy refueling time because if Momma ain't happy, then no one's happy!
I even developed a talent as an adult, something I didn't know I could do. I grew up drawing and sketching and I could copy anything from a picture, I'm just not great at drawing from memory. I am a huge HGTV buff and love the designer David Bromstad and all the beautiful paintings he paints for his clients. I have always wanted to learn to paint landscapes and decided to give it a try. I'm not saying they are awesome in any respect, but I love to paint now and turns out, I'm not too bad at it either!
Encourage your children to try new things, to take classes to learn. As an adult, work on developing your talents or learning something new because being well rounded means, "You know how to do everything!" Thanks to my friend C. and here's your TiP fOr TuEsDaY! ;0)