My first reaction on opening the gift was to remark, "They really don't have a clue what I like at all."   Yet, the comforter set became the anchor for my first decorating project, my guest bedroom.  The whole project worked like this.  When the paint for the guest bathroom turned out to be a very different color than it looked in the store, I discovered that the color worked well with the comforter set.  Suddenly I had my anchor color scheme for the room.  Little by little I added touches like the bedside table with the fou fouey ruffle on the bottom.  I'm not a ruffley type but the color worked and with a lace top it looked nice.  Add a picture from the starving artist's sale -- nice colors in a very cold wintery mountain scene -- and the room was complete.  Even the ugly lamp given us by my in-laws fit nicely into the scheme.  And, voila, there it was, my first completely decorated room.  Although it wasn't like I'd envisioned it might be, and I didn't follow the process I thought I 'should' to decorate, it worked quite nicely.

This isn't much different from most of the projects I've known.  I usually expect them to be nicely planned out -- the equivalent of color swatches, of all the 'right' colors, styles and accesories picked out in advance with everything my imagination can conjure up readily available, affordable, and done on time.  They never turn out that way.  The colors don't quite live up to my imagination.  The styles, if they are available, are not accessible or affordable.  It usually happens more like my guest bedroom.  It starts with a few pieces  provided with the best of intention.  I find the heart in those pieces that weren't quite what I expected, and add more bits and pieces as they show up into the world of the project.  The end the project produces rarely looks like what I'd envisioned.  It most often works marvelously, and by the time I'm done, I'm attached to all the pieces that weren't at all what I'd expected.

I could choose a different interpretation.  I could refuse to use pieces that don't fit into my scheme of what 'ought to' be.  When I do that I wind up stuck and not able to make any progress because the 'right' pieces just never do seem to show up.  I could progress with what the universe provides and curse the project every step of the way deciding over and over again what a disappointing project it really is.

In the end, it works best for me to decide that the pieces that show up really do fit together in the most pleasing way imaginable.  It works best for me and it works best for the pieces.  In my projects those pieces are most often people and it works best for all of us if I decide to be pleased rather than disappointed.  I discover the harmonies initially unheard, the subtleties  previously hidden, and riches once mined and never after lost.  And I discover, later, that I can hardly part with that comforter that I didn't think I liked originally.  Go figure.