I decided at the last minute to make some costumes for a performance that was only two weeks away. I needed fourteen costumes, and with so many bolts of fabric in my sewing room, it shouldn’t have been a problem. It became a problem. I didn’t have enough fabric on any one bolt for all the costumes to be the same. However, I did have enough fabric of two different kinds that blended well together. If I was VERY careful and sparing with the cutting, I could get exactly fourteen costumes by using one fabric for the first seven costumes, and the other fabric for the other seven.
So, as I was cutting and sewing, things were going along as planned until one costume seemed to come up short with a weird curve along the hemline. Apparently, I had caught the fabric when cutting it in a fold with the fabric under it! That meant that the other costumes under it would not have enough fabric either. I was so frustrated and disappointed, because I had neither the time nor money to start over. So, out of anger (I admit it) I threw the crooked fabric aside, and it landed on top of the alternate fabric that had not been enough on its own…and it looked kinda cool. Since I didn’t have enough of the original fabric I wanted anyway, I had nothing to lose by playing around with it a bit. To make a long story longer, I took some of the first few costumes I was trying to replicate and cut them into my mistake design. Because of blending and mixing up the designs, I now had plenty to work with, and I ended up with something I liked even better—all because I screwed up! We all have to be willing to see a new possibility when original plans don’t work out. As Mr. Spock always said in the original Star Trek, “There are always alternatives.”
One of George Balanchine’s methods of choreography was to incorporate mistakes that occurred during rehearsals into his ballets. The unexpected beauty often became the signature of the ballet.
God does that all the time with us. He takes our screw ups and creates an unexpected but beautiful product. It shows how short-sighted we can be in our plans. Just when we think we have completely missed the mark, God creates through us what He intended for us from the beginning. Thinking and creating outside the box may be a stretch for many of us, but the very things we consider mistakes are just a part of His plans for us.
Our mistakes should never be tossed right into the trash; they’re not garbage, but they are situations that don’t happen to be inside our box of expectations. We can either adjust our original plans and embrace the changes, or we can file them away to use for something else. Once we give ourselves over to our art and the One Who gives us the inspiration, it’s amazing to see how we can be a part of a special miracle! Often we are the paintbrush, not the painter.
Dance on
Grace Notes 