The Art of Never Finishing

I was sitting beside my son on the couch, watching a Fisher Price DVD of the "Little People." Our friends had lent us this particular one so we could expand our collection during a recent vacation. As it turned out, my son was more satisfied with watching the Little People DVD he had been given by his grandparents for Christmas (and the only one he owns) over and over again rather than branching out.

I, however, was curious. As he and I sat side by side snuggling on the couch before his afternoon nap, eyes glued to the television, I found myself feeling a tad disappointed. This "new" DVD for our family was actually an "old" one. The Little People looked different! They weren't the soft, loveable characters we had come to know and love. They looked stiff, almost like actual replicas of the hard, plastic toys the DVDs were marketing rather than the animated characters in the one WE owned. Even Devin was restless, quickly becoming more interested in his "Big, Big Trucks!" than the usually-addictive flickers of the TV.

Something struck me as I struggled to sit through this older version with my son. Even those in the "bigtime" are constantly reinventing themselves, trying new things. The creative process is about sharing, revising, getting feedback, trying things out. For a long time, I was under the misconception that anything I put "out there" (like this blog, for instance) had to be "perfect"--never to be changed again.

A friend of mine recently told me Caroline Myss (a favorite non-fiction author of mine--and a bestselling one!) was relaunching one of her books under a new title. Again, a change. Again, someone in the "bigtime" taking a leap and saying, "I can do better! I've changed my mind! I like it this way instead!"

I find this all very inspiring. The more creative work I do and the more courageous I become about putting it out there, the more I realize that rather than being a place of completion, the real world is actually the greatest experiental lab there is! Nothing is permanent, everything changes. Sometimes the most compassionate thing we can do for ourselves is to get in on the fun.

By the way, this month's theme on www.dreamcatching.net is "compassion!" We'd love to have you stop by and check it out.