I just watched Whispers of the Heart a few days ago with a friend, and there was a little speech that really resounded with me and I think it should be talked about more. It was the scene where the protagonist was beginning to doubt her abilities, and a kind old gentleman gave her a stone and said:
“Emeralds are worth a lot of money, but they need to be cut and polished first. When you first become an artist, you’re like that rock. You’re in a raw, natural state, with hidden gems inside. You need to dig down deep and find the emeralds tucked away inside you. And that’s just the beginning. Once you’ve found your gems, you have to polish them. It takes a lot of hard work. Oh, and here’s the tricky part. Look at the crack in the geode. You see that big green crystal there? You could spend years polishing that, and it wouldn’t be worth much at all. The smaller crystals are much more valuable. And there may be some even deeper inside that you can’t see.”
This is such a great metaphor for hobbies and talents alike. We all have valuable crystals inside of us, it may take some time to find them, but they’re most certainly there. You can’t expect perfection from the first look at a crystal. It may need to be pried open, polished and taken care of. Eventually though, you may find that there’s a whole series of crystals inside of you! So keep going, keep pushing!
