Developing Oneself Creatively

Our leisure time can be spent in many ways, sometimes useful and sometimes not so useful. Taking up a hobby is a useful way to develop our potential talents creatively, to grow spiritually, mentally, physically and socially. There is no way we can separate what we do in leisure time from what we do in our working hours. Whatever is done, in leisure or working time, is sure to nurture the self, says a graduate of an engineering college.

Writing in a diocesan bulletin, he recounts how he spent 15 years working for his company when he suddenly at the age of forty had the desire to draw. From the time he was in middle school, he had never indulged this desire, but now felt the need to express his gratitude for all that he had been given by bringing what he had been given to life by the skill of his hands.

There were no teachers of art where he was living; if he wanted lessons he would have to travel to an art school, which would be difficult with his busy work schedule. So he found an easier way to start. He went to a department store, bought a beginner's book on the subject, a notebook, a drawing pen, and began drawing.

He began by drawing the simple things he found around him, often no bigger than the size of his hand: his wallet, identification card, hand phone; objects he had once used daily without much interest were now of interest. Improvement at first was not noticeable, but he did not demand much of himself and did not compare himself with others. His only competitor was his own past works.

After about 100 hours of effort, he noted that he could move his hand more easily to carry out what his eyes were perceiving.  At that time, he began to draw the objects that meant so much  to him from his past: his desk, a small child's hat, a T-shirt, the shoes his wife had bought him. After drawing for 18 months he gathered all his drawings and made a book of the drawings, exhibiting his work in a bookstore. The drawings were his way of appreciating and sharing the beauty that is in the world, especially as it is found in the ordinary things of life, which he now saw as gifts.

If you want to be happy, he says God will help you in your quest. There is no need to ask for  gifts. We need only ask for enthusiasm and the will to persevere to find what it is that we enjoy and then to share it with others. True happiness does not come by possessing  but by doing and sharing. He hopes that his talent will help make God's joy, as he is experiencing it, better known through his drawings. His constant  prayer is that he will be thankful for the gifts he has received, and that God will use him in any way he desires.  He only wants to be his tool.