Creativity in the Mundane

You can find all kinds of oddities on Facebook.  Like a moose at a stop sign on the main drag of my home city of 60,000.  This video clip caught the moose hanging a hard right at 4 a.m.  In the space of 2 days the clip had already received 309,000 views!  

One FB post recently reminded me to live life large…literally.  The English and Scots are known to be great gardeners.  Even the most humble of homes will have a flower garden.  

One Scottish woman living on the island of Shetland decided her fence needed revamping, so she created a fence out of heavy, black fishing twine. That does not sound very lovely… until you realize she crafted it by using a centuries-old Shetland lace knitting pattern.  Yes, she knitted a fence!  

The result is beautiful, if surprising!

The panel of lace was 3 feet high when finished! The result is beautiful, if surprising!  The knitting needles that she used were fashioned out of thick curtain rods!  It took her 3 weeks to knit enough lace to surround her garden in a complicated 23 stitch pattern. But what an astonishment!

Go the extra mile, says the adage.  When you need something serviceable, add some beauty to it, might add the Scotswoman.  Go a little further, dig a little deeper, add some creativity to the mundane. Place a touch of humor in an otherwise dull exchange. 

So much of our life is spent having to be productive.  Why not add a smile when filling that order? Why not compliment a hard-working co-worker? Why not do your spouse’s chore for once? 

I was once the recipient of a free meal thanks to the generosity of the person in front of me at the drive-thru.

Why not assume the best of a person and not the worst? Why not drive a little more forgivingly? Why not go the extra mile to spice up someone’s day? I once traveled 400 miles and passed out lilacs from my garden to the toll booth attendants in three different states!  On the flip side, I was once the recipient of a free meal thanks to the generosity of the person in front of me at the drive-thru!.

Go a little further, dig a little deeper, add some creativity to the mundane. Add a touch of humor or generosity. There is no telling where the trail of beauty will end, once begun. 

Perhaps you think your deed will go unnoticed.  Or think that once noted, the deed will be quickly forgotten leaving no lasting influence.  If so, take a lesson Anne Eunson of Hamnavoe, Burra, Shetland, a hamlet of a few hundred. Her one act of knitting a fence has now spurred on untold thousands to use a larger needle…a larger measure.  

There is no telling where the trail of beauty will end, once begun.   

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”   Luke 6:38