Personal Growth Planet Blog

Every morning I do sit ups and supported back bends over a big plastic balance ball. After I’ve stretched and moved my body in this way, it feels so good. It’s an infusion to my system that helps me prepare for what’s ahead that day.

But, as I reach my hands backward, toward the floor, my balance is challenged. My body is gently pulled just a little bit more than it’s used to being pulled.

This is an uncomfortable feeling. Sometimes, I tumble right off the ball onto the floor. Other times, I notice myself holding back– not fully giving my all to the backward bending.

Swirls of color on a canvas. Voices and dance on stage. Handmade crafts of paper, cloth or found objects.

All of this will come together tomorrow in a Columbus, Ohio art show called KidzArtz that I have had the privilege of helping to organize with some Mother Artists at Work friends.

The creativity and imaginative spark that have gone into each craft, visual art piece and performance are amazing…all the more so because every artist is under the age of 18.

There is nothing quite so precious in both a child and an adult than the ability to imagine.

As a child, I dreamed of being a Country & Western singer (I don’t even know if such a musical category still exists today). I would sing as I did my chores, sing as I walked to school and sing every other moment I could.  I even had a stage name picked out for myself– it was Dusty Rose, I think.

I’m not sure if my elementary school-aged self really believed that one day I would be a professional singer, but it was certainly an enchanting dream. As I got older, my aspirations for what I wanted to be changed.

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new”- Albert Einstein

No matter how many wise and witty quotes I read about the value– even the necessity– of making mistakes in life, it’s still uncomfortable and sometimes painful for me when they happen.

There have got to be very few people in this world who actually enjoy making mistakes.

Even the most laid-back, easy-going souls among us probably cringe when they say the “wrong” thing, drop a plate full of food on someone’s white carpeting, forget an important deadline or some other blunder among the millions of possible blunders a person could make.