Act As If I Know The Rules

I put some flowers in my window box the other day. I viewed the sad, empty box for as long as I cared to, and after a few shopping excursions purchased 5 plants to fill it. My neighbor had planted flowers a week earlier, and she mentioned how nice mine looked. Thank you. I’m pretty sure I mentioned hers when they went in. Everybody needs a little praise for their efforts.

In my head this simple exchange of pleasantries takes on a life of its own. You see, there are rules to these things- floral arranging, gardening, even giving and receiving compliments. And up there in my head, its important to appear that I know the rules.

When people think about rules, we tend to think in terms of following them. Follow the rules and achieve success. Okay, so what, specifically am I following. I’m going to need to learn these mystical directives in order to follow them. Also, my compliance will be observed critically and even compared to the performance of others.

I say this because when complimented on my floral arrangement, my impulse was to start quoting the rules to my success, but I stopped short of the whole tutorial. Its almost as if I needed people to know the mental work that I exerted prior to popping a few plants in a box. But the thought process had taken more of my brain power than necessary. In terms of creativity, I hold myself to a high standard.

So here, in brief, are the rules as I know them in case anyone is curious. I chose 5 plants, a pair of white flowers, a foliage plant with shocks of hot pink for the center, and a creeping vine for each end. The vines don’t match, so in terms of color I have a range of greens from dark to pale to variegated, some crisp white blooms for bulk, and the surprise of the pink in the center.  Oh, and the box faces north, so all shade plants required.

Anyone still awake? I could toss in even more rules about numbers and heights, and blah blah blah. But what matters is that it looks nice and somebody noticed. In the end, creativity just comes down to that. Notice me. Notice that I have a skill set which allowed me to perform this creative act.

The flip side of this is the thousand little deaths I will suffer in my mind if my work is seen as a failure. Part of operating by a set of standards is the pressure to perform. I can’t just plant flowers. I have to know what needs to be done, form a plan, and stay within my limits.

There are rules to these things. They will lead me to success, but only if I act as if I know the rules. I just don’t always need to mention that I know.