“We don’t make mistakes. We have happy accidents.”
– Bob Ross, painter, and more.
Most Sunday mornings, I get up early, make coffee, and watch “CBS Sunday Morning”. It’s my favorite show on television. It contains elements of art and culture and positive people doing positive things. There’s very little bad news, conflict, or angry people being angry. It feels how a Sunday morning should feel.
This morning was a profile on Bob Ross, the legendary painting instructor of PBS fame, with his “happy little trees”. His tone and style and perspective on art applies, in a larger context, to life. He demonstrated grace and forgiveness for “mistakes”. He created art around the imperfect brush strokes. And, it was beautiful.
Life rarely looks like the picture we have in our minds. We try and flail and fail and get it right and often get it wrong. But, we keep painting. We work around our set-backs and our mistakes. In fact, our mistakes help us find better colors or work with a smoother, steadier hand. These “happy accidents” are necessary for us to grow into better artists of life. They don’t set us back. They move us forward.
So, this morning, I hold my brush and consider colors and work on the translation of my mind’s picture to the canvas. I’m sure I’ll screw something up today. My hand will twitch or my words will be not-quite-right. And, I’ll have to work around these things. But, I’ll keep painting with the belief that the picture being created will be a nice one. This is a good thing to believe.
Photo credit: Robin Malmanger
Dave Markwell is a life-long Des Moines liver and lover. Former owner of Waterland CrossFit and the Waterland Arcade, Dave uses his unique story-telling voice to help small businesses tell a better story, and his love for people to help folks live bigger and better lives.
For more info, check out his website: wordsbydave.net
