There is no right way to create beautiful things.

Alright, ready for a little stream of consciousness thought wanderings? Stick with me, I’ll get to the point.

I was helping a patient with a transfer today and golly it was a struggle…don’t worry my body mechanics were impecable! However, I looked up into the mirror afterward and my face was beat red and my hair all disheveled. It made me think of the stereotypical “Beethoven the conductor” image:

da da da daaaaaaa!

So, it was no surprise on my commute home tonight I was blasting some Symphony No. 5! Then my i pod shuffled about and some Mozart came on, a little Bach, and what classical mix would be complete with out a stringy sprinkling of Vivaldi. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about the process of the creation of art and beauty and I wondered about the different processes between some of my favorite composers. Check these pics of original draft compositions of Mozart and Beethoven:

We’ve got the structured & ordered mind of Mozart on the left and the explosive & scribblings of Beethoven on the right. Now, you may prefer one of these great composers over the other … but they both have contributed a whole lot of beauty to this world. It made me think about how nervous I get sometimes when I am “trying” to create. Then I realized, there is no right way to create something beautiful.

So whether you doodle poetry on napkins, paint masterpiece water colors, torture your siblings whilst learning the violin, sing in the shower, or sketch on coffee cups: create some beauty in your world. Lately I’m realizing there is no greater gift I can give myself than just creating something beautiful and every once in a while you put these things out into the world to share and maybe, just maybe they resonate with another soul.