Got Talent?

One of my friends, an accountant at a company, is the best “crocheter” I know. She makes the most amazing quilted items for all sorts of occasions. She enjoys and can do all kinds of designs for her family, her friends, and even shares some of her works with her colleagues. Seriously but with tease, I often plant the seed that she should open her own boutique and make some money out of her gift, but she always denies the idea and resents the thought that her “talent” could become her ticket to a more prosperous life. Don’t get me wrong, she is a great accountant, very detailed oriented and good with numbers, but she has a glow about her when she is talking about and showing off her stitches.

Yesterday, my daughter and I watched “Tinker Bell” on our movie night. As much as I’d like to deny it, I have my moments with the fairy tales stories; there is something about them that takes one to the land far far away. Aside my sentiment, the movie was about one’s talent. Tinker Bell was created with the gift to make and repair things, but as she learned that only nature-talent fairies can go to mainland for spring, she thought that her “gift” was too menial and desired to become like one of the other fairies. She tried in vain to create dewdrops with Silvermist, teach a bird how to fly, or light fireflies with iridessa, but no matter what she tried, she failed at it. She wanted to go so bad to the mainland that she was willing to become anything else but who she was to achieve her goal. At the end of the movie, she had to exercise her gift to save the Pixie Hollow from peril, which helped her understand that all fairies had a particular job to do and every talent was essential to whom it is given.

Few of us understand and use our talent freely and satisfactorily; but many of us still try to fill in other’s talent to make it our own, denying our true purpose. We believe that whatever it is, in spite of how we feel or regardless of what people say to us, it cannot be it, it is a mistake, it is ridiculous. We feel that we should be something other than; a singer instead of a painter, a writer instead of a negotiator... Consequently, we will realize that no matter what we try, we can only experience frustration, resistance, and sadness until we accept our talent as what it is and be free to be, to enjoy, and to serve.

©2012 Natacha Michel