You’ve got talent!

The other day my sister came over to hang out with the kids (as she does on a regular basis...it’s the best!).  The kids decided to show her some of the things they got from Christmas and they wanted her to play with them. One of those things was an LCD writing tablet that Santa had brought them.  I wasn’t paying too much attention to what they were doing because I was too busy doing chores (hey, when they are occupied, must attack the chores) but towards the end of her visit I was cleaning up and saw the writing tablet.  I picked it up and knew right away my sister had used it. There were beautiful flowers drawn on the tablet, so detailed and so intricate. I picked it up and said something like “Did you do this? It’s so nice!” and she replied without really paying any attention to it, “Yeah. They are the flowers from your ottoman.”  I looked down and sure enough she had drawn the really complicated looking flower pattern from my ottoman on to the kids’ tablet. She must’ve drawn it in just a few minutes, what I never could’ve drawn in my life! (I am absolutely positively horrible when it comes to drawing anything. My poor kids and neighbors have seen my pathetic chalk art enough times to know that my repertoire includes a sun, happy faces, hearts, boxy houses, and stick figures.)

You see, ever since my sister was a kid, she has had a natural talent for drawing and painting.  She did it with ease, and for lack of a better word her stuff was always so good.  So realistic.  So detailed and artistic.  I noticed it when she was just a toddler.  I am 8 years older than she is so I did a lot of babysitting.  So I would draw my little stick figures for her and she would sit along side me and draw real people!

The funny thing is I think because drawing and art come so naturally to her, I am not sure she realizes how good she is.  I mentioned to her husband, my brother-in-law, recently that he surely must know what an artist my sister is. And he seemed surprised!  He said he didn’t really know that she drew. If I had half the talent that my sister had I would be drawing on my walls, top to bottom, every single day.  But I imagine to her, that drawing is just a part of her. Not something that she sees is even a talent!

It makes me wonder if there’s a little something special in all of us that we don’t recognize because it’s so innate in us.  Something that is a part of us and it comes out with such ease we don’t realize it is what makes us special or unique.