The Happiness Project...in my own words.

I've had  this book for awhile but never seemed to pick it up...and once again I am serendipitously ( is that a word?) holding a new source for authenticity.  I have come across this quote "when the student is ready the teacher will come" about 4 times in the last two weeks.  All in completely unrelated places!  

This Saturday was my second water coloring class at our museum.  I have wanted to do an art class for awhile possibly holding to a thought that I might be a "natural".  Ha!  Until the instructor actually took the brush from my hand I could not figure out what I was doing wrong.  I seem to use horizontal strokes when a vertical stroke would make more sense, I have a hard line that is difficult to blend, I didn't purchase the best paper, and I didn't have an easel.  Oh well.  I began the class thinking this was going to be my shining moment and left the class feeling slightly embarrassed.

"My chapter one is not the same as someone else's chapter twenty," I told myself on the way home.  What did I expect?  

I am barely in the third chapter of The Happiness Project and Gretchen Rubin says, "Enthusiasm is more important to mastery than innate ability, it turns out, because the single most important element in developing an expertise is your willingness to practice."

So there it is.  I will just practice until I make those dang watercolor clouds jump from my paper!  And of course, I just bought better paper.