A heap of colourful fabrics were mounded at one end of a table. Next to it was a large white roll of cotton batting, squares of cereal box cardboard, scissors, glue bottles and a metal box filled with acrylic paints. The project for the art class was to create art journal covers for handmade art journals made out of recycled materials. The class was specifically designed for teens and participants were eager to start their projects.

A young boy scanned the pile of material looking for specific colours. He had envisioned the sky and was looking for blues, white, and various shades of grey. He found white and blue but to his disappointment, there were no grey fabrics at all. So he puzzled over his predicament and asked the instructor if she had any grey fabric. She replied, “Yes, I do at home. I will bring it in for our next class.”  The boy was relieved but soon discovered he did not want to wait so he sat quietly with the problem and then suddenly came up with an ingenious solution. He decided he would paint the white fabric and create his own array of grey fabrics!

Mixing white with black paints, he found the tone was much too dark to his liking. Mixing white with a bit of grey was perfect though and as he continued mixing different portions of white with grey, he created a wonderful scope of greys for his project!

This young boy reminds us of a valuable lesson in life. When we stay focused on our vision, moment by moment, answers come to us. On top of that, not allowing disappointments to inhibit us but to merely see them as obstacles to overcome is imperative. Stay open to the path of creative adventure and your true potential will reveal itself in miraculous ways!