Melinda Morley

I have long felt the desire to create. From my earliest years, however, more often than not, my desire to create did not match up to my abilities. Even still this is the case.

I clearly remember sitting in Kindergarten and coloring with my yellow crayon. (Lemon yellow was my favorite.) My teacher said to stay in the lines away from the shark that lived outside the lines. I remember looking very closely at my paper and I was pretty sure there were no sharks, but I was very obedient (just ask my mom) so I stayed in the lines as much as I could just in case. But I was only five and that wily crayon was hard to control. I felt really bad when I went outside the lines. I was always disappointed in my coloring pages. They never looked as pretty as I wanted them to.

In second grade I colored a picture of Santa. I didn’t want to be like everyone else, so instead of a white beard like everyone else was doing, I decided to go blond (a good choice still). So, my Santa a big yellow beard, lemon yellow, no doubt. But when I eagerly showed it to my teacher she read the bottom of the paper, “The beard on his chin was as white as the snow.” And promptly stamped a “satisfactory” snoopy stamp on my paper. I promptly threw it in the garbage can before any other judging eyes could look upon it. A satisfactory snoopy stamp was ultimate humiliation.

I could go on, I have piles of pathetic art projects from grade school. My embroidery was mediocre, my quilting horrid. Sewing a straight line is pretty much impossible. And don’t even get me started on the ills of scrapbooking. It should be banned, but then what would all the bored housewives do? (I’m kidding. Sorta) Anyway, my taste in color, design, decorating–blah, none of it comes naturally to me. Gardening is better, but still…

So, if this sounds like a pity party, it’s not. (If I were having a pity party, I would tell you horror stories of childhood and teen PE experiences, but I don’t want to make you cry.) I fully understand that the reason that most of my outward skills are lacking, beyond having little to none in the natural ability department: I don’t take the time to cultivate them. Because what I really want to do is write.

I want to create worlds with words; characters with skills that I lack; adventures, triumphs and failures–all of it. I can create fantastic homes, flourishing gardens, intricate quilts, and even coordinated scrapbook pages without lifting a finger. The mind is an amazing thing.

That is why the talk by Elder Uchtdorf spoke straight to my soul. It satisfied in me the wonder of why I wanted to create so badly and why that is such a good thing.

So, now that you are inspired, go. Go and create. There are a million things to create. Paint, sew, cook, smile, write. Whatever it is that you do, do it. And be happy.