success – Aspirational Adventures

I am very proud of myself and so I thought I’d share mainly because as Brits we aren’t very good at sharing what we’ve done. We almost think it is a huge sin to say we are proud of what we’ve done. We think being humble and meek is saying we’re not really good at the things we do well.

This summer I’ve got lots I’m proud of for my own achievements – of self-publishing the booklet on my reflections on Psalm 23 – which you can find on Amazon if you wish; hubby and I went Raku glazing at the edge of Snowdonia and I came back with a couple of really cool pots; co-ordianted a Messy Church event in our local group of churches and didn’t come away thinking I had to do more than; ran dragon themed writing workshops in my town; and made this amazing sourdough loaf.

But also whilst doing the sourdough loaf, especially, I learned about me and how I learn.

So I’ve tried sourdough many times and never know quite how to get it to look good. When I was with my friends helping to declutter their loft my friend made a sourdough loaf and I watched right from the start where she started feeding the “mother”. As she did each step I thought “I can do that”. So when I got home and looked at the recipe I could see her doing each step and so was able to produce this amazing loaf.

I need to watch someone so I can learn. Tell me or showing me on YouTube or reading it from a book doesn’t work for me. I need to watch someone else do that. It explains why, no matter how many times I read a book about crochet or watch a YouTube video I still get my hands muddled and nothing happens. This doesn’t mean I’m not going to be any good at crochet but it means I need to watch someone doing it.

Also with regard to the recipe, I am not a recipe follower. To me a recipe is a guideline to give me a bit of a form of reference to see what goes with what. I skim read it and then just go for it. I change ingredients, change amounts and make it up as I go along. I can open the fridge and work out what to cook from what I see there. This of course explains too why i wouldn’t be good at making sourdough because I could potentially skip steps. But because I’ve been shown how to make it I won’t skip the steps.

Though this guidelines stuff is what does make me an awesome cook. It is also what makes my writing workshops fun – because I give myself a rough plan and then make it up as I go along. This week, in the morning of the workshop, one of the group told me it was National Welsh Rarebit day so I just reshaped the session around that – because I’m not set in stone on these things.

Flexible is good at times but with other things, like making the sourdough loaf it isn’t. But this doesn’t make me a good or bad person or for those who are the opposite doesn’t make them good or bad either.

Talking of good/bad – I hung out all yesterday afternoon with a lovely friend who says her natural resting mode is “troll” whereas I would say mine is “Tinkerbell fairy”. We are total opposites and yet we encourage and motivate and adore being together.

So I do think we should accept what we aren’t good at and be honest about it, but also, and more importantly, we should celebrate our strengths, boast loudly about what we can do. Show off a bit. After all the God who Created the Whole Universe thinks we’re amazing so what right have we to judge. So I’ll still be flexible on many things but learn that with others I need to watch those who know and then follow their example whether with sourdough or with crochet .

Today is a bit of a change to my usual blogging.

I was reading a piece and in it it said how we should share our achievements, which is something I think, especially as Brits, we are reluctant to do.

Most of have been brought up not to boast, to be careful we aren’t too proud [“too” like “enough” is one of those non-quantifiable words], “pride comes before a fall”, “no one will like you if they think you’re a smart arse”, add in your own phrases that have held you back in sharing your own achievements.

I don’t think writers are plagued by the imposter monster any more than many people and professions out there. We just write about it more 🙂

Generally I slide my writing on to my “My Writing” page on this site, hoping or fearing, that someone will come across them. But, today in the spirit of “sharing my successes” I have decided to share it here.

Arabel, an art student, sent out a group email to various writers asking if they would like to write something about one of the pieces of carved coal she was using in her degree show. I think she was very brave because even without knowing what she was getting, once each of us writers said we wanted to do a piece about a certain piece of coal she marked it as “taken” without even knowing what would be written. All the pieces are at a high standard but it was still a brave move I felt. She also offered payment.

I think this piece inspired by a penguin carved from coal entitled The Parent We All With For But Often Fail To Be could be the first time I’ve been paid to actually write a piece. Yes I have won competitions and just received complimentary book/booklets for the win, and of course have published my own books – “The Little Yellow Boat” and, my self-published poetry book, “Inspirations From Walking In North Wales“, but to be paid for a 200 word piece is something I feel should not go unnoticed.

Although to be honest, I have found this post very hard to write and it has taken a few days to get it together. Sharing one’s successes is not the easiest thing to do.