glue worked only on Jake’s mug.
The elephant trunk and heart
were in too many broken bits to
put back together. Luckily, Miley
had a whole different way of
looking at things.
“You know,” she said, “now
that my elephant has a short nose
instead of a trunk, it looks kind of
like a puppy with big f loppy ears.
I think I’ll call it my doglephant!”
I laughed. “That’s the cutest
doglephant I’ve ever seen!”
“I’m guessing it’s the only
doglephant you’ve ever seen,” she
said, giggling. “But I’ll take that
as a compliment anyway.”
“It’s so cool how you just
turned that accident around into
something happy. I wish I could
do that with this pile of pieces.”
“Well, my dad is an artist.
He always says creativity is messy
and mistakes are happy accidents,”
said Miley. She looked at the pieces
of my heart. “If only the edges
weren’t so messed up, you’d be
able to fit these back together
like a puzzle.”
And right then, I knew what
to do. About a month ago, we
learned how to use mini tiles
and muddy stuff called grout
to make mosaics. I asked Rick
if I could make one by using the
pieces of my broken heart.
“Excellent idea,” said Rick.
He found a base I could glue
the pieces onto, and he helped
me mix the grout.
When it was all done, Miley
said, “That turned out great!
You can still read the words
and everything.”“It is pretty cool,” I said with a
smile. “Thank you for helping me
come up with the idea.”
So, dear Giving Up, you shoulddefinitely NOT give up. My
present didn’t turn out at all the
way I’d planned. It turned out
even better! My grandparents use
my mosaic as their favorite trivet.
Next time you feel disappointed
that your art doesn’t look the way
you’d like, remember what Miley’s
dad says: creativity is messy. See
if there’s some way to turn your
“mistake” into a “happy accident.”Ciao for now,
Arizona
And right then,
I knew what to do.“My dad always says
creativity is messy.”NOVEMBER 2019 41