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Friday, February 26, 2010

Successful Creativity


“Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.”

Arthur Ashe

Anyone who maintains a blog is creative. I think it’s the nature of the beast.
Titanium, who does her Element 22 blog with lots of originality, was acknowledged recently with the Kreativ Blogger award, something her wit and imagination well deserve. She passed it on to me.
The deal with this kind of award is that you explain who gave it to you and provide a link. Then you reveal seven factoids about yourself, and you pass it on to someone else. And somewhere on the post you insert this award:

I think I’ve told everything there is to know about me. But let me peel some layers off the onion and see what there is to find.


1. My first job was in a rock and mineral shop when I was 12. My dad got it for me because I loved rocks. I earned 25 cents an hour cleaning and helping rearrange the wares. Bonuses: The owner gave me rock and mineral specimens for my collection, plus I got free lunch at the next-door Tastee Freeze. I still have my rock collection.

2. My first car, presented to me the Christmas I was 16 by my dad, was a 1960 Studebaker Lark convertible. It looked like a black bomb to me and I despised it, because it was 1971 and the car wasn’t a classic yet. Dad paid my uncle $50 for it. I drove it for a year before cracking the radiator and getting a VW Bug afterward. My dad told me to be sure I always kept the radiator full on the Bug. I was paranoid until I found out it had an air-cooled engine and Dad was pulling my leg.

3. I trained as a florist in high school, then chose my university to study horticulture with the notion of a career as a floral designer. After one semester of plant identification, that idea went south, and my English professor talked me into switching majors. I kept up my work in floral design, and now I compete as an amateur in our regional fair. I won a Best of Show for my work last year.

4. I won a crossbow-shooting contest in the Swiss Alps while loaded to the gills on vodka. It was the first time I had ever handled a crossbow. It must have been the liquor.

5. I met my husband in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in 1990. Friends played matchmaker between me, a high-falutin’ magazine editor, and Joe, a truck driver with tattoos. I fell in love with him on our first date, when he described someone as looking like a “beachball with arms.” We’ve been inseparable ever since.

6. In the earthquake we had here in 2004, my town lost a few 1880-era brick buildings. I brought home some of the bricks and made this miniature piazza, in the shape of an iron cross with limestone accents. It serves no useful purpose, but I like knowing the bricks were handmade 130 years ago down by the river, and that I have preserved them from the garbage dump.

7. I love my Canon digital camera. These days I enjoy shooting with the macro setting. I cruise around the yard often, looking for possibilities. No one else gets to see the shots except me and sometimes you. That suits me fine. As Arthur Ashe said, the doing is more important than the outcome.

Now to pass on the award. I bestow it upon two blogs I discovered during my Haiti Challenge early this month. Please go visit them:

Patti at Pattinase looks at writing, books, movies, politics, life and music in creative ways. She covers forgotten books, old TV shows, political or corporate faux pas, old crime thrillers, what’s funny and what’s not. She’s fresh and interesting.

Rene at Not the Rockefellers promises to share the “view from the cheap seats” and she delivers with a wry sense of humor. I like her poetry too.

And do You think success is a journey, or a destination?

23 comments:

Karen said...

So rocks and flowers have become your avocation...not surprising! Your pictures, by the way, are gorgeous.

Shadow said...

congrats, lovely award. and another crossbow'ist... second one in 2 days. i think that's so cooool!

as for success, i can't quite decide... success is surely a single event, although succeeding and then burning isn't success either, so it must be a journey... you see, i just don't know.

Scott M. Frey said...

well, this was a nice little journey through your life :-) thanks!

Brian Miller said...

digging that you won the crossbow tourney...always love reading these giving such insight...smiles.

hope you have a great weekend...

the walking man said...

Success is the journey when I open my eyes successfully in the morning and realize I am still breathing. It is good to start the day off with a little success.

Syd said...

I really like that black car. That is very cool!
Your photos are great.
I think that success is a journey because there are little successes all along the way. I for one would get to the destination and ask "now what can I do" or "is this all there is?"

Sherry said...

You've had an interesting life and I also like your creativity!

I feel that success is a journey because life is right "now", this "moment" and we are where we are supposed to be at the "moment".

Magpie said...

You have led such an interesting life! Thanks again for sharing.

I think success is a journey and that it changes all the time.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Thanks so much. Your creativity and generosity of spirit is blinding and inspiring.

Alice Audrey said...

Congrats on the award!

Unknown said...

Thank you for the award!
And I love the miniature piazza
I may have to borrow that idea :)

Have a great weekend

Peace ~ Rene

Anonymous said...

The crossbow win totally RULES!

(as do you)

Garnet said...

Today, success is an attitude.
Of gratitude.
:)
I loved the colorful photos. The bricks are gorgeous. What a nice touchstone to the past. Literally, I guess.
You enjoy this great reward. Thanks.

Monkey Man said...

So I am reading the personal facts you share here on your blog and what pops up on my computer....a message the Enchanted Oak has sent me a comment. Connections can be powerful or is it just coincidence?

Nessa said...

Success is definitely are journey. Usually a very bumpy one.

One Single Impression - Insomnia

CiCi said...

Great quote by Arthur Ashe. I was so much a fan and because of him I played more tennis than ever before. Do you see that first car as pretty cool now all these years later?? I would have loved to have that car.
Floral design takes talent I think sort of like being a photographer only with natural things and not a camera. Oh you wonder you, crossbow! Competition crossbow!! Hugs to you. I love the mini piazza and the meaning behind it. You are so cool!

Rosaria Williams said...

Lovely to explore more facest of your life. A piazza project! Sounds very inspiring, actually!

Matty said...

Free lunch at the Tastee Freeze? Best part of the job. My first was cutting grass, raking, pulling weeds for a neighbor who had a landscaping business. A whopping $2.00 and hour. Hey, THAT was big money back in 1973.

Your Studebaker is beautiful. Oh what that would be worth today.

Speaking of crossbows and alcohol. The one and only time I ever went golfing, I was 14. I shot an unbelievable score and NEVER went again. I didn't like it. Beginners luck.

I've had several Canon cameras. Love em.

Terra said...

That was fun learning a few things about you. I got an award and posted 7 things about me on my blog today.
We have some things in common including living on the California coast and liking British mysteries.

steveroni said...

About success, is it possible that it is destined, to some extent? But it is certainly a journey, even Beethoven's stuff got better as he aged.

So does--ahhhhh...wine?

Unknown said...

If you drove across the states would you consider only the state you arrived at as part of the trip? I would have my senses awake for the whole trip (as much as humanly possible). :-)

I love your blog for its beauty and truth.

Take care & God bless.

* said...

Great award, congrats. And I was glad to read this post as it was a lovely introduction to your blog.

I love your camera & the rock & mineral shop sounds intriguing!

PS: Success is most definitely (in my world) a journey.

Unknown said...

What wonderful things you shared! Sometimes peeling that onion can be a good thing, I think. I loved the fact that even though you didn't major in horticulture, your love of it is still enriching your life. I'm that way with my piano playing. It comforts my soul.

Lovely list, dear!

namaste