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"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well." - Psalm 139:14
I'm fascinated by Instagram. I follow a couple of accounts... ok, ok... maybe a few more than a couple! Anyway, the point is that those tiny, perfect squares are able to draw me in just as quickly, and just as completely as a full-blown blog or the glossy pages of a magazine spread. It's effective. It's engaging. It's inspirational amuse-bouche, and it whets the appetite for all manner of imagination and creativity.
The images are meant to capture our attention in a fraction of a second and keep us captivated, wanting more. The problem with those pristine pics is that often the thing they inspire most is imitation. Instead of becoming the jumping-off point for creativity, they become the end-goal. Because of that, It's getting harder to find feeds that are fresh and original, so when you do, you take notice. Such is the case with three of the women whose accounts absolutely fascinate me.
The really interesting thing about these three ladies is how diverse their philosophies are from one another. All of them offer decorating content, though quite frankly, most of their individual styles don't particularly resemble anything in my home... or anything in each other's. What makes them special is the fact that they ARE so original and so true to themselves.
Two of them are "maximalists." Their homes are filled... FILLED to overflowing with all manner of treasures and collections. One, however, is very much a "minimalist," with each item, each piece, of furniture or window-dressing a stand-alone work of art. One loves color! Her home is bright and fun with florals and patterns exploding profusely over every surface. Another concentrates on just one shade of green, and though her home is brimming with the objects of her affection, it's at the same time peaceful in its color cohesion. The third is a photographer by trade, so she focuses her attention, and ours, on the interplay between light and shadow.
As I was scrolling along one day, checking out the usual favorites, I wondered why I liked these particular ladies and their creativity so much. They had not a thing in common except for their gift of originality, and I realized that must be it... the thing that drew me in in the first place. They were unapologetic, unafraid, and unashamed to simply be who they were. They were to me, "iconic," as one of them had so aptly said she hoped one day to be... each one, a one hundred percent original.
Aren't we all?!
Sometimes I think in the quest to fit in, to be trendy, or even to project the perfect image, we lose ourselves. We fade so far into the background of plurality and popularity that we become virtually invisible. There but not there. Seen but not seen. Present yet anonymous... and that's tragic, because we each have so much to offer, so much uniqueness that no one else possesses.
When I was a teenager and learning to play the trumpet, I listened hours on end to Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. I loved their sound. I'd sit cross-legged on the corner of the couch, stereo blaring, trying desperately to play along and imitate what I considered to be that golden tone. Later
during my college years I tried to play like my teacher, tried to match HIS sound. I never succeeded with either. All these years later I still just sound like me... and that's ok, because my sound is unique in its own way too.
God doesn't make carbon copies, not even in identical twins. Each one of us is a one hundred percent original. The way we turn a phrase. The angle with which we view our subject. Our sense of humor. The secret ingredient we add to tweek that heirloom recipe... all displays of our beautiful uniqueness. All meant to honor the God who created us and placed within us a masterful mix of just the right gifts and talents to be who He envisioned us to be from the very beginning.
It's perfectly natural to want to emulate that which we admire, but it's also ok to be brave enough and unapologetic enough to put our own original spin on it, whatever that is. We take inspiration and run with it... run the path God places before us. We take our talents, our gifts, and our abilities and we rock them with everything the good Lord put in us because He knew exactly what He was doing when He created you and when He created me.
Focusing too much on trying to capture and recreate someone else's giftedness only means that in the meantime our giftedness is going to waste, and what a waste that would be, indeed... of a one hundred percent original.
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