Volunteering

Image courtesy of rescue.org

As I wrote yesterday, I'm in limbo at the moment after finishing the Crown Phoenix series. For the past few months, I've spent most of my days inside at my computer to write the book and edit it.

After a while, the solitude of that life becomes normal. After all, people are moving around in my head and talking; their relationships and adventures became my version of human interactions, instead of shopping with friends or going to lunch.

Once the books was delivered to my editor, for a few months at least that little world is closed off to me. So today I sashayed to my kid's school, to put in a few hours of volunteer work. I thought it would be a good way to re-enter the Real World. Where you have to Talk and Stuff.

And so it proved. The other women working to prepare for a huge fundraising event were chatty and hardworking. They accepted that I had reappeared from my office after months of sequestering myself without questions or comments, and I can't tell you how happy that made me.

This woman is a god to me.

We had to do crafty, creative stuff. Yeah, I'm really BAD at that. I can't tell you how much I'm NOT the scrapbooking mom, the decorating wife, the flower arranging lady. If you want a room to look thrown together, as if someone unloaded a moving van right in the center of the floor, I'm your gal. When it comes to decorating, I just don't have that gene.

One mom, who is a genius with that kind of stuff, came to my rescue. She was able to move one thing in the lumpy projects I put together and make them look like breathtaking pieces of art.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to different forms of creativity or talent. Some can organize like there is no tomorrow (I cannot.) Some can paint or make music. Some can put kids instantly at ease, start long conversations with strangers, make friends easily, or bake incredible cakes.

My own little talent is creating imaginary worlds, and it is neither worse nor better than any other form or creativity. It is what it is - I just know that it's there in my brain, and that's that.

Would I trade it in for the ability to make my house look like a magazine shoot or effortlessly organize my life?

Well, no. But I will stand next to that mom who can whip those projects into shape.