The Fantasy and the Reality

Jun 16, 2008


“Run a Mile in my Shoes” Photo by Amy Davis Roth

I am getting married soon. I have been doing quite a bit of planning and as usual for an artist I have been doing quite a bit of daydreaming or visualizations of how the day will turn out. One of my favorite items or plans related to the wedding I like to think about is the honeymoon. After all the I dos are said, the rings are exchanges and the toasts have been made my hubby and I will be spending a week on the beach near wine country and I have been doing quite a bit of exercise to get in perfect shape for my honeymoon beach escapade. I imagine myself on the sandy beaches with the morning sun glittering in my hair, the waves caressing the beach, the soft sand between my toes as I jog effortlessly down the beach for my morning exercise. I have been training for this. I do various work outs for about and hour everyday and can now run 2 miles no problem at all so yesterday I decided I would take my fantasy for a trial run. I went to the beach. The sun was glittering in my hair, the waves were crashing along the shore, the sky was blue, the seagulls were smiling, it was a beautiful day and so I started running barefoot in the sand. I ran about half a mile and then I dislocated my toe. I’m honestly not sure what happened or how I did it but the point is this was not at all how I envisioned it would be.

This sort of thing has happened to me before as I am sure it has happened to most everyone out there. Artists are often familiar with this concept and it is why sketches and rough drafts are important. What we imagine our designs to be is often much different from the reality of how things are or will turn out. We often want to passionately jump into a project or a painting without thinking things through because we get caught up in the excitement of the ideas. If you simply stop and take the time to do a rough draft more often than not you will be able to work out a problem you were not aware of in order to perfect the final design and you will save yourself from making silly, unfortunate errors. Lucky for me my art project of a wedding is not for another 2 months so my toe will have time to heal and I have time to reevaluate my honeymoon workout plan. I will wear running shoes when I run on the beach and it will still be a fantastic time. Life is a rough draft and each revision is an opportunity to make things better.

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