One door slams and another door opens...

I started reading Sarah Lewis's book, The Rise, this morning (subtitle: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery).  My husband found it at the library and thought I might appreciate it -- and, given yesterday's revelation -- the timing is just about perfect.

My favorite quote, so far, is this: "It is a cliche to say simply that we learn the most from failure.  It is also not exactly true.  Transformation comes from how we choose to speak about it in the context of story, whether self-stated or aloud."

You might remember I was feeling a bit disheartened, a couple of weeks ago, when my gallery rejected my paintings and asked for boat pictures instead.  It was only after that that I learned they were staging another Boat Show for July, and for the first time in all the years I've been showing there I wasn't invited to participate -- which saddened me even more.

Luckily I had signed up for a book-making workshop at the new Art Museum on the island, so at some point, as I was thinking over the odd circumstance of being asked for boat photos yet not invited to the show, I thought -- what the heck?  I'll make a book!  What you see here is the result of my labors -- a delightful (if I do say so myself) rendition of Kenneth Grahame's wonderful quote from Wind in the Willows: "Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

I would like to thank one of my facebook followers, David Ore, for responding to that discouraged post with the following words: "Diane- they're but one gallery, and my sense is that this isn't so much small-thinking rejection as it an indication you're about to expand your reach..... thrive dear Diane... the wind is gathering under your wings."

By opening my heart to the possibility/reminder that there is a larger world out there, David triggered a series of applications to a number of other galleries as well as this entertaining approach to the conundrum posed by my own gallery -- all of which, to me, bears out the truth of the Lewis quote cited above.  By choosing to look at the story, not as rejection but as opportunity, I feel like I've opened new doors for my work.  So -- let that be a lesson for us all! 

... all of which makes me think of these lyrics from a wonderful Anne Murray tune called "I know too much":

"Promises, rules, and hearts get broken;

Plans and minds and people change.

One door slams and another door opens --

Don't ask me, I can't explain!"