I just got back from the National Art Education Association’s annual convention which was held in San Antonio, hence no The Wonder Full Creative in your mailbox last week. It was a busy, but wonderful time connecting and reconnecting with my fellow art educators and presenting some of my ideas. One of the best things for me are the conversations in the in-between spaces, like when you bump into some stranger in the exhibitors’ hall or while standing in line for coffee, and you strike up a conversation, or even the conversations with friends and colleagues that I’ve known for a quite awhile.
The conversations from this year’s convention, made me think of something that I say to myself and to others quite frequently. “The universe is always conspiring with us.” It may feel like we’re at odds with the universe, especially when a string of bad luck hits us or when things don’t go according to plan, but I do truly believe that the universe is always conspiring with us. It has to do with our mindset and our attitudes toward ourselves, our circumstances, our lives, and our creativity.
Over and over I heard two main threads during these conversations. On one hand, there were the folks who were just negative and complaining. They would go on and on about how hard and how difficult it all was, and how everything was so stacked up against them. And on the other hand, there were those who were full of positive energy, and though things were hard or difficult, they managed to see the wonder and the beauty. Now teaching is hard, and I’m not here to say that it’s not, or gloss over the difficulties with a peppy, fake attitude. But this made me think about how our mindset and our attitudes affect not just how we see the world, but how the universe responds to us.