The Writing Fairy -- Guest Blog by Pat Taylor

by Pat Taylor

Back in the day when I was into painting, I had a wonderful teacher. Her classes were in high demand because her creations were not only beautifully designed, but comical and a joy to look at.

She lived in her own magical world, and loved to tell stories as she taught. Sometimes she'd even teach in costume. One such night, she told us about the Painting Fairy. She said that many times as she had tried to create her designs, she would struggle and struggle -- never quite getting it right. She would finally grow frustrated and stuff the work in a trunk somewhere to get it out of her sight and forget about it.

Days, weeks, or months later, she would run across it and find that the Painting Fairy had visited while she wasn't looking and changed it into something wonderful -- something she absolutely loved.

I was charmed by that thought, and even found that the "fairy" began to visit me too sometimes. When I'd leave class depressed and downhearted because I felt I would never paint as well as my instructor, I would put my piece away, and a few days later when I went to take it out in the light of day (sometimes with thoughts of destruction in mind) I would find in its place a delightful piece of art!

The magic happened when I removed it from that room full of talented artists, stopped comparing my work to theirs, and accepted it for what it was -- my best effort, created from my heart.

Creativity flees when you try to force it to conform to someone else's ideal, but step back and look from a different point of view and it often becomes all that it was meant to be.

I'm counting on the fact that there's a Writing Fairy too!