"Anyone should be able to speak Mandarin. A whole country of children does! I'm an adult, so I should be able to pick it up." So said a friend who hoped to become fluent, tongue in cheek.
It's hard to learn new skills as an adult. Our culture tells us we can become anything we want to be, learn anything we want to know, do anything that interests us. But language, art, and music are intuitive as well as informational. So learning from childhood gives a boost and flexibility to tongue, brush, fingers, feet, and posture that adults may never achieve.
My kids gave me a wonderful Christmas present - a three month trial of www.artistnetworktv.com. Every evening, instead of passing time with a sitcom, I watch a master painter create color and depth and line. It looks so easy as he or she twirls the brush, dances it across the blank page. The colors blend. The artist knows exactly which pigments combine for tones and values. Long experience has taught each painter to manipulate the eye to create a portrait, landscape, or abstract.
I don't really care whether or not I ever acquire the skill to paint something wonderful. Seeing the fluency and instinctive corrections on the videos reminds me of musical improvisation. That I can do without thinking. I've done it since early childhood.
Maybe it is time to try a new art form. To experience the pleasure of another talent, even if I never become proficient. I will at least be further along than if I'd never tried!
Read more:
*Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 NLT
*Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV
*Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. Rev. 4:11 NLT
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