In the Meantime......

A phrase that has kept jumping into my mind over the last several months is “In the Meantime”. As I have begun teaching calligraphy classes around Greenville, South Carolina, this past year I often hear the same comments. But the pervasive ones are “This is so much fun, but I’m not really ready to put myself out there”, “The way I did this letter is not exactly how you wrote this letter” or “How did you know it was time to put your calligraphy out there?” The answer to all of these questions is— you are NEVER ready. Looking back to when I first put my calligraphy out there I see a very imperfect writer. But, everyone starts somewhere. In the meantime between being a novice and an expert what are you going to do? Sometimes the scariest place to be is in the middle. When you are a novice you know that you are nowhere near mastery and can own that it is all new and fun. When you are an expert at something you can do a skill in your sleep. The hard part is when you are on the journey to learning that skill and have decided to put in the effort and the time and not knowing the end result. Being in the middle was the scariest point for me. Am I going to commit myself to learning calligraphy and put in the daily time this requires in the meantime. Or, am I going to settle for writing on scratch paper and playing it safe. In the meantime is the in between, in the meantime is the messy place, in the meantime is the building process. Don’t wait til you feel ready because you will never be READY.

Picture: My recent calligraphy class, Haywood Reserve