Gratitude for Your Gifts

This Thanksgiving, as you gather with family and friends to acknowledge the many blessings and joys you have in your life, don’t forget to give thanks for your gifts. I am thinking especially about your talents, your aesthetic sensibility, and your creativity. They are the gifts that make us interior designers unique.

I know you have studied and worked hard to earn your success. As Thomas Edison observed, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” Yet, that one percent can make all the difference between good and great.

As anyone who has ever suffered a mental block or dry spell knows, creativity is not the result of effort alone. That idea, vision or solution that suddenly appears seemingly out of nowhere is a true gift. It is bestowed upon us so that we can apply our talents and energies to bring it into being. We can be proud of our abilities to achieve it, but let us also be thankful for the flash of inspiration we received.

Much the same can be said for talent and a sense of style or taste. Once discovered, you can develop that talent or taste. Through hard work, you can excel at it. Without the gift in the first place, though, no amount of study and practice will make you a master.

Thanksgiving is a perfect occasion to express your gratitude for the gifts you’ve been given and for what you have gained by putting those gifts to good use. Make room at the table for your muse, and maybe save her an extra slice of pie.

Photo Credit: DesiLu Photography