Pinterest: From Skeptical to Convinced

I did not go willingly to Pinterest.

I resisted despite the advice and recommendations. Social media classes recommended it. Pat Sloan and Luana Rubin talked about how it could be useful for business and marketing. My friend Heidi Reagan wanted me to try it because she knows me well and knew I would love it. I didn’t care. I was sure Pinterest was a giant rabbit hole into which I would fall and never get out.

I don’t have time, I said. It won’t help my business, I said. I don’t see how it will help me in any way, I said. I was wrong on all counts. Click here to visit me on Pinterest.

My Pinterest Presence After One Week

So, why do I like Pinterest? Let me share my top five reasons.

1. Pinterest is free if you don’t count the cost of time and internet access.

2. Pinterest allows me to enjoy things I cannot own in three dimensions. Things that are too big or too expensive or just unavailable in real life can be pinned on my boards and enjoyed at any time.

3. Here in the real world, things don’t stay organized. Chaos always wins. On Pinterest, things stay where I put them.

4. Art is a visual medium. Pinterest is a visual medium. It feeds my need to see things that make me happy.

5. Pinterest is amazingly inspirational. A very small percentage of my pins are quilts. I find I’m inspired by non-quilt images that I hope will in some way inform the art I create later.

Thank you, Heidi Reagan, for giving me a tour of your Pinterest boards last week. About two screens in I knew I was hooked. For the record, you were absolutely right.

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Lessons About Creativity Learned from a Mama Bird

Not long ago, I noticed a bird flying away from the red-berry wreath on our front porch. I was afraid she was trying to eat the berries, which are really styrofoam coated with red stuff, so my husband took down the wreath. That’s when we noticed the nest, filled with beautiful, fragile, light-blue eggs. We replaced the wreath with a sense of wonder.

Since we first noticed the nest, we’ve been watching the Mama Bird. She’s been sitting, waiting, watching, incubating.

This morning, I noticed that Mama Bird is gone. Camera in hand, I climbed onto the bench to check on the eggs. Gone. They’re all gone…but one.

This seems profound to me. There must be lessons here.

If our ideas — our creative offspring — are our eggs, then consider this.

1. Our ideas come from within. Our environment can add experiences, teach us skills, shift our perspective, but we ultimately produce our own ideas.
2. Once we have ideas, we must nurture them — put them in a safe place and attend to their needs. What do ideas need?
3. Not every idea will see the light of day. Some will be lost. And that’s okay. Sad, sure, but okay. We must spend our time and energy on the ideas that will make it out of the nest. Feed them and watch what they become.

I’m off to nurture some ideas of my own. Thanks, Mama Bird, for the inspiration.

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