“After enlightenment, the laundry.” That’s what the Buddha taught.

I have my own version of this teaching. “After inspiration, the skill gap.”

It’s a truth I bump up against whenever I start a creative project. In the beginning I’m full of ideas and inspiration. But as soon as I try to bring those ideas into being, I come up against the skill gap. No matter how accomplished I become, there’s always something new to learn or unlearn, usually both, to bring my vision down to earth. The learning process is a cycle of study, try, fail, study, try, fail – on repeat, until I finally break through and master whatever it is I need to master to be able to produce some approximation of what it is I had in mind.

I’ve been grappling with the skill gap ever since I decided to rebuild this long neglected website. To refresh and renew my long neglected email list. To integrate the two and set up automations so that new visitors to my site will be added to the mailing list, and people on the mailing list will automatically receive new blogs and newsletters as they come out. I’ve done this before and I suppose that gives me a head start. But the tools are always changing and it’s a constant practice of letting go of old ways to embrace new. It’s a messy process.

I wish I was as sanguine as the Buddha, but I am an impatient woman, easily frustrated. The trying and failing, trying and failing and trying again, drains me of energy. I’m trying to become more zen. Because I know from experience that if I can maintain my focus and not blow up or bow out, eventually the skill gap narrows. I am more and more satisfied with what I am able to produce. I also know from experience that I shouldn’t push for too much too fast but let the process occur at it’s own pace and trust that the effort will be worth the reward in the end.

Speaking of rewards, my reward for the work on this website is joy. And pride. I feel joyful and proud whenever I type in the url and see the home screen appear. I feel joyful and proud when I send off a blog post with reasonable certainty that you the reader will receive it. I hope, and choose to believe, that you will feel my pride and joy whenever you visit. And I hope, and choose to believe, that some of those positive emotions, born out of worthy struggle, will pass on to you.

Three morals in this story:

1. After inspiration, the skill gap.
2. The most beautiful work is born of struggle.
3. At the end of the struggle there is joy and pride.

Yours with creativity and imagination,

Darlene