Words of wisdom

Here's something I meant to write about before, but other stuff intervened, and now I have some time to go to my back burner, so here it is.

I heard an NPR interview a while back with childrens' book author and illustrator Eric Carle about his most recent book, "The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse," and it made me think of a saying that is good to live by.

My mind wandered to the time I interviewed Carle while he lived and worked in Northampton. As I climbed the stairs to his studio, I saw this poster that he had made with pieces of colored tissue paper, the way he does all his work.

His rendition of an Irish proverb was so beautiful, and, I thought, directed at me...and of course at all worriers and over-thinkers and people who can't proceed with what they want to do because they are stuck in their own mind.

The Carle collage would be a good thing to put on our desks or on our kitchen tables or wherever we can see it.

By the way, I did not just stand in the staircase mesmerized by the poster. I went into the studio, where the author of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and other beloved books was incredibly gracious and talkative.

He showed me the drawers where he kept his tissue paper, separated by color. Then he took a sampling of papers, put them in an envelope, and gave them to me. I felt like I was holding an envelope full of gemstones.

The rule at the paper was "Don't take anything from anyone."

Therefore, if someone sent you flowers or a fruit basket as thanks for a story you did about them, you were supposed to scoot right over the a hospital or nursing home and donate them. Also never take tickets, etc. Most people kept the flowers or shared the fruit and candy with the rest of the office. As for me, I laughed at how the rule really could not apply to an envelope of paper scraps, but I did think about it when I went home.

Katie, who had been reading the books, was thrilled. I gave her pieces of paper to use for her own art projects and made some collages of my own, until eventually (and sadly) all the paper was gone.

But back to my point. I thought of the saying last week when I realized I had spent months worrying about something over which I had no control, only to find out that the outcome was the opposite of what I had worried it would be.

I was relieved, but I also regretted the waste of time where I could have been doing something productive.

Oh well, all you can do is keep trying.