Books vs Reality

I was just reading a book about a lady who read everything she could get her hands on about Tahiti because she wanted to go there.  She looked on line, she read people's experiences but when she got there, it wasn't quite as she imagined.

I love reading about gardening or beading, or several other topics but when I try something, it doesn't seem to come out quite as well as the pictures I've seen. 

I think it comes down to expectations.  When you research something, you feel as though you are an authority and know all about it but when you try it?  Well that is a different story.  I found this great pattern in a bead magazine for a bracelet.  I read the directions, looked at the pictures until I felt I could put it together blindfolded but when I tried doing it?  That is a whole different story.  Things slipped, the pearl wouldn't stay so I could get the beads around it to stay, and its in my pile to finish someday.

I forgot that until we do something, we really don't "know".  We can't experience the depth of anything until we do it.  I once discussed the taste of a mango with someone who had never had one.  I did my best to describe it but I also acknowledged that when she had her first one, her description might not meet mine at all.

Everything we hear, experience or feel in this world is colored by our interpretation of the event.  It will never be the same as anyone else's and is unique to that individual person.

I'll be heading off to Hawaii for a week beginning on Halloween and that experience will be different than every other time I've gone because its a different time period.  I am looking forward to this experience as I'll be going to a conference and presenting.  Have a good day.