Hard lesson learned while watching paint dry

So the other day I decided to do this project I’d been putting off for a while. It was something which was a bit tedious and would require me to dedicate some time to it. Thus, I just never seemed to find the time. However, I had nothing to do for a few hours the other day, and it seemed like the perfect moment. There I was, on my hands and knees when the doorbell rang. Ugh, I had been expecting a package but the delivery guy usually just leaves it. Fine, I get up and answer the door – rather annoyed at the man. Double ugh, it was a friend and neighbor, not the delivery guy. She’s elderly, often lonely and I hate to be rude to her. She wants to talk, I try to explain this isn’t the best time but she insists. I offer her a drink and say I’ll be with her as soon as I can. After all I’d spent the better part of 20 minutes mixing paint to just the right color. And that was after setting up the projection on the wall with my mural I was going to copy, which had taken a good 30 minutes. Yup, sorry, I wasn’t wanting to waste paint nor try to figure out how to duplicate it so I could finish a half painted wall. She’d come unannounced after all. But she didn’t sit quietly in the other room, nope, she starts jabbering away. There was just no way I could concentrate on my task and I had to abandon it. I walk back into the living room, this time with my paper plate of paint in my hand in the hope she would take the hint and go away. Far, far away and quickly. However, she didn’t. Ugh, she starts complaining about the bothersome neighbor whom we both share a fence with. He’s causing problems again, she wants me to fix him again. Fine, whatever. By the time she gets up to leave, my paint is beyond dry. She looks at the plate for a moment and then says something that throws me. “Creativity doesn’t require perfection. You’re not God, you know.” As I’m standing there stunned by her statement, she lets herself out the door. Well, she had me there. I don’t know how she figured out why I was frustrated with her, or if she just guess and hit the nail on the head. Because, beyond putting the plate down, I hadn't said a word about what I was up to. But, yes, she was right. I wanted my painting to be perfect and now the odds of that were slim to none. What with the paint on the wall half done and dry, and no matching paint to be had. Now, I’ve never exactly seen myself as a perfectionist. Sure, there are some things I just want to make sure are done right. And, no I don’t like to be interrupted when I’m in the middle of something most of the time. I’d rather be left alone to finish my task. Here’s the thing, it’s because I’m one of those people who will end up on a bunny trail if my thought train is broken. Take when I write, for example, if you start talking to me when I’m in the middle of a sentence, odds are, if I look at that sentence later, I'll never figure out where I was headed with it in the first place. This is why I prefer to write in complete silence, head down, ignoring the world. Even if I’m in a public place, using the people around me for inspiration. Remember the movie ‘Up’ and the dog who keep stopping to yell ‘squirrel’? Yeah, that’s me. Okay, fine, maybe I’m a little single minded, one tracked, overly focused. Is that really such a bad thing? In this case, I think it was. The issue with the problem neighbor could’ve waited – however my friend couldn’t have. She came by because she was sad and lonely – it didn’t matter what she had to say or what I was doing. She needed someone right at that moment not after my wall was finished. Lesson learned…