By Christine Thackeray
Have you ever met someone who is a natural athlete, musician or artist? It's like they just have this gift from heaven that gives them a clear vision or steady hand or unique perspective and when you are around them you suddenly realize that you are more normal than you ever imagined?
The scriptures come crashing to mind that we shouldn't compare... i.e. "all truth is independent in that sphere in which it was created" and "to every man is given a gift" but some people truly have more as illustrated by the parable of the talents. Now in the end, whether you have only one or a whole handful of talents you get the same reward, but in the meantime it is humbling when you are feeling pretty good about your three and you sit next to someone that has hundreds.
As you probably know, we just moved and I joined a writing group. Well, we have five members but only three are active. The other scout leader and I are strong writers. (SL is always grammatically accurate with no typos unlike me) but the young mother of five that we meet with is incredible. She makes me laugh every other Wednesday and literally dazzles me with her prose.Luckily, she is on my side and I feel like I'm improving, just sitting in her shadow. It's a great thing. The same is true for the online critique group I'm with. There are a few members that are awesome- they see things I would never think of. What a gift!
I guess I want to publicly thank those great talents that are helping me along the way and hopefully with enough work I'll grow from three to maybe eight- over the next few years.
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5 comments:
You speak for most of us, I dare say. On days when I struggle to get a few pages written, I feel jealous of those who produce ten or more pages a day--and say it's easy!
How great that you have a writing group. I haven't found one in Green Valley yet, so again, I feel a little jealous of my writing partner Lael Littke, who has been in the same group for over thirty years--all women, all serious, published authors.
I love being in a critique group. At the moment mine is very small, I e-mail my stuff to her, and she critiques it and she e-mails me her writing.
I learn all the time from her critiques, and hopefully my critiques are helping her as well.
Fantastic take on the parable of the talents, Christine!
Fortunately and unfortunately, that is what happens when we surround ourselves with great people. Hopefully, though, some of their greatness will rub off on us. I know I have those same feelings when I listen to the great writers in my critique group. BTW, I'm hosting a writing contest for young, wannabe writers. If you know of any (18 and younger), will you please send them my way? Thanks a ton!
It's great when we can share our talents with one another!
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