The Tole Fairy

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 Tole Fairy.

She said that many times as she had tried to create her designs, she would struggle and fuss - never quite getting it right.
She would finally get frustrated and stuff it 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 tole fairy had visited while she wasn't looking, and changed it into something wonderful that 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 her class depressed and downhearted because I felt I would never paint as well as she did - 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 it's 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 elses' ideal, but step back, and look from a different point of view, and it often becomes all that it was meant to be.
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2 cents, please.
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