{Do You Ted?}

Ted.com may be one of my very favorite websites of all times, ever. In all of history.  It's an open source learning site chalk full of speakers on every inspiring, interesting, scientific, or humanitarian topic you could think of.  I can spend hours getting lost in 18 minute speeches.  It's a grand morning when that happens, let me tell you.

This morning I was browsing my regular blog roll and came across an old post from an Interior Designer that I enjoy, Colour Me Happy, that mentioned a Ted Talk from Eliazabeth Gilbert, writer of Eat, Pray, Love.  In this speech she talks about creativity in a way that I've never heard before and it almost brought me to tears.  Go listen to it so the rest of this post makes sense to you.

The reason I was almost in tears is directly related to a recent crash and burn I experienced, creatively speaking.  I spent almost one entire week earlier this summer sewing clothes.  I started with a pattern for a skirt, got stuck and moved on to a skirt with no pattern that wouldn't fit over my hips and then a dress that looked terrible followed by another skirt that I was SURE would work, and may still work some day when I lose 10 pounds.  Not one actual piece of clothing that I would be comfortable wearing and one huge pile of pieces of clothing shaped fabric to mock me was what I was left with for my efforts and enthusiasm.

At the end of this week I felt like a huge failure, and no matter what I tried I wasn't cut out for sewing. All my dreams of making my own wardrobe some day were down the drain and really, why try when I just spend all this time only to fail again and again? 

After listening to Elizabeth, I feel like if I just keep showing up at my sewing machine, and I keep doing my end of the deal, eventually it will click.  That's a better feeling than just defeat.