Learning to Love the Dabbler

I’m kind of a dabbler.

I blame credit a lot of this to my parents, and some of it to just how I am.

As a kid, I was into a different sport for each season, I played piano, I sung in the children’s choir at church, we had church events and after school enrichment [One time I took Japanese for after school enrichment.  I remember how to say “hello” and how to count to 10.] and Sunday family dinners [By family, I mean extended family, not just the four of us.  It isn’t uncommon to have 15-20 of us on a Sunday afternoon.]  We also loved to travel.  Travel to the boat [in early years, the sailboat in Bloomington, in later years the speed boat down in Tennessee.], travel to see family in Florida, travel out west to go skiing, travel across the country by car, train, plane, whatever.

I am unbelievably thankful for all of these opportunities and experiences.  I had a wonderfully blessed childhood, and as an adult I have a wide array of interests because of it.

But…

It also means that I’m not really good at anything.  I don’t have any specialties to speak of.  I’m ok at a lot of things.  I’m pretty good at starting things.  It’s the follow through I have a harder time with.

Which is how I feel this blog is.  A little of this, a little of that.  Some recipes, some DIY projects, some life experiences and lessons.  I feel like it’s kind of scattered.

Is that ok?

Is it allowed to be a conglomeration of the various things that make up my life?

Or do I need a specific purpose.  A cooking blog.  Or a home decor blog.  Or a sewing blog.  Or any number of specialties.  Because to be honest, I’m not good at any of these things.  And I’m not good at following through to become good at any of these things.

I like people.  I like taking pictures of people and arranging those pictures, be it in frames on my wall or scrapbooks.  I like cooking and baking, but only from time to time [as in, not every day…because who has time for that?!]  I like crafty projects, but I get frustrated with them pretty easily.  So if they’re not super easy, they don’t get finished.

Sometimes when I read other people’s blogs, I feel like mine is totally lame.  And unfocused.  And scattered.  But it’s also heartfelt and full of little bits of me.  So I try not to compare my blog to other people’s blogs.  Because I know…

Sometimes I just need a little extra reminding. I also feel that it’s very important at this stage of my life to keep pursuing the things I love.  They’re an important part of me, and I don’t want to lose that in the craziness of day-to-day life.

Hayley over at The Tiny Twig is doing a series on finding your passions.  She recommended taking a strength finders test, so I did.  It didn’t tell me things that I didn’t already know.  My strengths all have to do with people:  making people feel included, working with groups of people, communicating with people.  But none of that really translates into a specific hobby or bloggable activity.

So I’m learning to be ok with that.  I’m learning to love me for me….”Jack of all many trades, master of none.” [Although, someday I hope to be a Master of Intercultural Studies….a dream for another day.]  Not to give me permission to never try things, and especially not to give me permission to give up easily.  But to say, it’s ok for me to like the things I like, to work at the things I want to work at, to dabble in the things I dabble in.

I’m going to keep blogging about the things I’m dabbling at in life, because it plays to those strengths of mine in which I enjoy communicating with people and including people in my life.  And because I enjoy the writing.  And because I don’t want to just give up on another project.  I hope you enjoy my dabblings.  I hope you find encouragement and inspiration and a sense of belonging.

 

What about you?  What are the things you’re learning to like about yourself?  Do you know your strengths?