Some gardeners look at seed catalogs during the winter,
anticipating new plants to become food delicacies to enjoy. I look out at my
simple, overgrown weedy garden on this January day and wonder if I’ll ever grow
more than one cantaloupe a season. And will it be worth it?
As much as I love gardening—it’s backbreaking work. Sometimes
with little rewards. Some plants do better than others. Even last week I was surprised
by a tiny indoor spider plant—one that I’ve had for 11 years. It bloomed a delicate
flower that lasted a day. For more than a decade this plant never bloomed a
flower. What a delightful surprise! All this time…and this week, for a fraction
of time, it gave me an unexpected joy.
Last weekend I was talking to two moms, and I had no clue
that one has an interest in being a young adult novelist. I say has for a reason, because I believe
anyone who has a dream, who feels a calling, can pursue it—no matter when in
life they bloom.
Do you feel like a late bloomer? What soulful calling churns in
your deepest thoughts? What whispers ideas that excite your imagination?
Those moments crackle in my spine…I get urges to create, to
make connections, to produce something new. And when those moments germinate my
pulse quickens and physically I feel a lightness and energy: hope intertwined
with innovation and joy. In some ways I feel like seeds had been buried deep in
some wintry garden of my soul, and who knows when the flower will burst?
I wonder if others feel the same. Like even Vera Wang---I
had no idea that she worked as a fashion editor until age 39. Then she opened
her boutique and began designing wedding gowns. Or that American painter
Grandma Moses, born in 1860, had her first big show in 1940. How impressive
that a young-at-heart 78, Moses began painting in earnest.
What has always intrigued me about creativity and art—and that
applies to entrepreneurs starting a new company, engineers striking up product ideas,
amateur chefs concocting a dish—in ALL areas of life--is that everyone is
juiced with the ability to create. That all it takes is a glimmer of an idea,
some carved out time to focus on it, and a pure joy of simmering in the
creation.
Everyone has a creative spark inside. It may take 11 years
to see it surface, like the delicate spider plant flower. It may take decades
for a book to sell. It may be even decades before you start. It may be a
lifetime of backbreaking work to see any success…but that’s not the point, is
it? If you feel that sensation bubbling,
that you just want to start, who knows what will burst forth? Along the way the
inner joy will bring you a sense of lightness and purpose. You may even
surprise yourself, I’m sure.
Time article about Grandma Moses
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