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What’s the best work you’ve ever done?

Daily | September 2nd, 2008 by Carrie McCarthy

    Crowning glory, your finest moment, your magnum opus, four gold stars…

    Carrie says: In my first year of Fashion Design in London I had to make a huge end of the year presentation of my portfolio. Drawing is not a talent of mine so I created a book full of notes in pencil, torn magazine pages, collected leaves, a collage of my treasured ideas. My teacher said, “There is one that stood out for its beauty and uniqueness, she colors outside the lines.” it was moi!
     

    Danielle says: My wedding was a work of art. It was a three-day affair at an old kid’s camp in a rural town. Twinkly lights, music everywhere, French toast, yoga - everyone had something they could get down with. People let loose in the best possible way (think harmonicas, and red wine, and people disappearing into the woods with new stories to tell in the morning). Besides that labour of love, I always feel my best “work” is yet to come. Everyday is another opportunity to be truer, stronger, clearer.
     

    Read today’s blog: Danielle’s Sacred Time Management Tips.

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Viewing 72 Comments

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    Finishing my first novel last year. It's not my best work, but writing THE END after years of work was so liberating. I've wanted to be a 'writer' since I was a child, and I felt like I finally deserved this epithet. That simple shift has changed everything, from my confidence to my output, and I am so grateful for it.
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    Completing 30 days of Ashtanga and Bikram yoga in a row, when I had only done 1 Ashtanga class before I started. I learnt a new respect and love for my body, which carries me on every day.
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    Giving birth to my two beautiful girls - nurturing, teaching, encouraging and loving them is the best days work I've ever done!
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    Designing and building my house and I'm not an architect. I longed for a home after more than a decade as an unsettled expatriate. Life's unexpected turns has that house on the market now, but I'm about to begin a major renovation of my next home, a small 1928 bungalow that I'm certain I can breathe new life into.
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    Well, the best work I have ever done is giving birth to my two children and then raising them to adulthood. LOL.

    With all seriousness and kidding aside, the second best thing I have ever done is a 50th hard-bound birthday book for a woman whose courage and grace battling cancer would bring tears to your eyes. As we all know, a circle of girlfriends can boost your immune system better than vitamins. I compiled pictures that memorialized this circle of friends and how the woman who was battling cancer touched each of our lives.
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    i don't have a single best but a series of personal triumphs. an example is something that JUST happened that is really just lighting me up! i am doing a "the artist's way" workshop and was with my "morning pages" and my pen's ink ran out and i kept going. the lack of ink was so delightful and satisfying, my writing soared and i was in the flow. it was a perfect example of the act of doing w/o ego. no record of my pearls of wisdom, no imprint of my time. at the end i felt the page and THAT ACT of touching the words pressed into the page, i felt a breakthrough, a moment of peace and satisfaction. i wondered if i could remember what i wrote by feeling it. this is a "best" work of mine.
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    Generation HOPE mentoring program is the best work I've EVER done! Encouraging and motivating kids (even though they may not have the social collateral or resources to do so) to strive for excellence.
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    There is only one answer but it is two stories. After 14 years of independent practice as a midwife (legal in New Zealand). I had a baby i was professionally responsible for die. I had admitted the mother to hospital and left her (and unborn baby) in the care of obstetrician and hospital staff. I had left specific written instructions as to the monitoring of the baby. I was called 8 hours (at 10pm)later to be told the baby had died and the mother was starting in labour.
    My professional reponsibility meant i had to put aside my own feelings of shock and devastation and provide care as the mother laboured thru the night when i just wanted to curl up and sob my heart out. It is among the hardest things i have ever done but i did good work. The mother had a normal birth and the father was blown away to be given his new born son to hold. The parents had good memories. They also were introduced to a world of grieving for the death of their precious son.
    I encouraged the mother when her labour got challenging because i knew that she would be like every other woman after a straight forward birth. She would carry in her body, soul and spirit the sacred dignity of knowing how to birth her children (she has had other healthy babies).
    I had at this time nearly 30 years experience as a midwife and every women i had cared for prior to that hot summer night helped me stay focussed on the mother to offer her my skills, my heart, and my time and hold myself together until after her son was born.
    This experience was the beginning of the end of being a midwife (my choice) and starting my work as a hospice nurse and that is another story. A life changing story.
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    I think the best work I have ever done, so far, is losing 35 pounds and keeping it off for over 5 years. I still have more to go, but that 35 is never coming back.
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    Coaching is the best, most fulfilling creative work I have ever done.

    Before that, my CRASH BLOOM installation was pretty awesome. It was my last art exhibit where I reached beyond a "body of work" and made a big colourful beautiful mess in the gallery space, playing with images and media I loved (yarn, felt, collage, paint, text and photo booth portraits). I even recorded my (legendary in these parts) laugh and had a headset with it running continuously. That exhibit was about letting go of Art (with a capitol A) and getting back into the joy of the creative process.
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    I created a flag for World Peace in response to 9-11.. The design was based on the Tibetan Prayer Flag, gold in color and maroon print with over 90 languages with the word Peace. I managed to get it into over 150 retail stores before Peace became political.
    "Peace is more than the absence of war. True peace begins with people as a way of life, before it is echoed between governments and nations. Through a single word translated in over 90 languages, Matjan's World Peace Flag reminds us of this wisdom, and the power that we carry in each moment of our lives."
    ~Gregg Braden
    http://www.amazon.com/Grandmothers-Feng-Shui-Wi...
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    I think it was my piano solo at my graduation from high school. I still don't know how i did it. It was an 11 page Rachnaninoff piece that I had memorized. I am not crazy about performing, but I had the piece down pat, and I just stormed through it with reckless abandon! I think back to that moment alot when I think about moments when I rose above any fear and just performed my heart out, physically and mentally.
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    Writing my first book. Seeing my name of the cover of this beautiful little book confirmed that I was a writer. I self-published. I may never publish another book. But my book has helped many parents deal with their grief at losing an adult child.

    'In Her Room' is about the last weeks in the life of my husband's 24 year old niece who died of lymphoma. It is a book about death, life, love, hope.

    I also went to university when I was 41, graduating at 46 with a Bachelor's in Social Work. It was, decidedly, the most difficult thing I've ever done and the most joy filled.

    Then in 2002 my husband went through a seven hour surgery and was a year recovering. I took care of him. Perhaps this was my greatest accomplishment - my four stars - my opus. I hate physical illness and here I was confronted with it every day, every night - tubes, medication, everything I hated. AND I DID IT - with help and often by myself.
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    Being honored by the People of Poland, with a Knighthood, for my 20+ years of work through charitable organizations to medically support children severely injured by the reactor failure in Chernobyl, Russia; and my contributions to the collapse of Communism during the Cold War.
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    I ran my first marathon shortly after a car accident I founded an annual small press literary festival and, as part of the festival, held a benefit for the New Orleans Public Libraries rebuilding campaign. When I presented the staff with the money raised and pledged continued support each year, I felt like I was doing such a meaningful thing.
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    Ha, oops, I started one thought then changed to another. The marathon was great, but the fundraiser felt about something greater. (Sorry for not proofreading!)
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    My best work was working with my brother/sisters and my Dad to help my Mom die peacefully at home in her own bed, surrounded by love.
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    I love the title! CRASH BLOOM. Love it.
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    I think that my best work has just begun as a teacher. Some days it's easy and effortless and other days it's an uphill battle to get up in front of a group of young adults day after day. I teach accounting which isn't the most exciting subject but will be useful in future carreers. When a student comes in and believes they are stupid at math and can't pass - I love the challenge of getting them to put some effort in and to see that they are capable, they have more strenght then they knew.
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    My best work was my thesis presentation for my BA in Architecture. I was a non-traditional student at an ivy league school so I didn't fit in with my fellow undergrads but for that critique being older really helped. Having worked for over a year on the project I felt more than prepared to answer my professors questions and there were a couple that strongly disagreed with my ideas. Proof that I was correct in my assumptions came from seeing the city take my proposals and turn them into real world projects that had strong positive impacts on the lifestyle of the city.
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    WOW. What incredible, brave, creative souls lie here! Thank you for your inspirations!
    I'm constantly working on my best work. Each day, each moment, it's bigger and better: me. Sometimes it's painfully slow (not keeping moderation in mind), sometimes (auditioning terrifically for some network big-wigs) painfully good. Sometimes shocking (birthing and raising a boy), frustrating sometimes (producing a film). Reassuring (taking myself to church), empowering (working out daily), silly (jumping into a pool at 1:00 a.m. fully dressed!). At the end of the day, each one is better than the last.
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    Such wonderful stories!!