Thursday Thinking—Published on Friday

I’ve been noticing talents lately and how much better my life is for people using theirs. I’ve thought about it while reading books, listening to music, and while interacting with creative people. I’ve thought about it while listening to others share their experiences. Frankly, I’ve thought about it a lot because it is everywhere. It is invigorating.

It seems easy to recognize others’ talents and a bit harder to recognize our own. I’m not sure why we hesitate to recognize things we are good at. Well, that’s not true. Yes, I do. I think we often hesitate to say we’re good at things because we don’t want to be a braggart. NOBODY likes a braggart, and . . . well . . . we people generally liked to be liked. However, true humility forces us recognize our talents and gifts so that we can be grateful for them and acknowledge where they came from. To never admit to or recognize our talents would classify us as ingrates. Are not braggarts and ingrates first cousins? And like a braggart, NOBODY likes an ingrate. It’s a fine line identifying those talents, it is.

A few years ago my friend Deb and I took a “Scrapbook in a Day” class from Stacy Julian. Stacy explained how to organize our pictures and execute our plan so that we could have a complete scrapbook, using 200 pictures, finished in a short amount of time. I chose to do my childhood and, following her suggestion, looked through my pictures and discovered there were four different categories that the pictures fell into. There were pictures of me, pictures of my family, pictures of friends, and pictures of events. Based on those pictures I categorized them into these topics:

All by Myself
People I Loved
People I Played With
Things I was Good At

“Things I Was Good At”—pictures of talents that could be captured with a camera. This scrapbook project made me brave the realms of braggart and ingrate and identify some talents. Talents like:

Music: Whenever teachers asked me what my talent was I could always say I played the piano. Though I was the church organist for several years while I was a teenager, I don’t think anyone’s imagination would stretch far enough to say that I was good at it. However, it was an acceptable talent when I needed one in a pinch.

Sports: I found I was athletic—much to my relief. I wanted to be good at sports and so it was a bonus that I was coordinated enough to play them.

Academics: I was not exceptionally smart, but I was an obedient and conscientious student which made up for my lack of natural ability.

Homemaking Skills: I learned to cook and clean by sheer necessity and though I learned sewing in 4-H, I never became adept at it. However, even without sewing skills, I knew how to make a home feel good. I was responsible for a lot of the duties in our home during my high school years because mom was not functioning. I learned how to have supper ready, the house tidy, and music playing quietly in the background to help make people happy. I learned that popping popcorn or baking a pan of brownies helped smooth over a lot of things.

But the talents that couldn’t be captured with a camera have been no less serviceable to me. In fact, they have been very rewarding.

Probably the talent that brought me the most happiness and peace was a desire to be good. I liked going to church. I liked reading the scriptures and saying my prayers. I liked jogging and walking. I liked family night. I liked giving service (though I didn’t particularly care for babysitting the _____ family, they were a contentious passel of kids; however, I did like the feeling when it was over.)

I also liked older people. My best youthful talents were probably used there. I spent a lot of time listening to older people reminiscing. Though my mind often wandered, I learned that if I gave them eye contact and asked questions they felt important. I practiced most on Emma Henstock. She broke her leg when I was twelve and I was asked to stay and care for her. I fixed supper, baked cookies, did her laundry, and cleaned her house. But the most important thing I did was keep her company. Until I graduated from high school, I would often spend nights with her to keep her company while she was convalescing through different illnesses and surgeries . . . and loneliness. Through her, I gained an appreciation for Lawrence Welk and licorice nibs.

Talents. Where would we be without them? In a sniveling black hole of ingrates and braggarts, that’s where. Do tell. Do tell. What talents did you develop as a child and what talents do you appreciate now?