Julie, the painter, sat there grimly, staring at her new, not so wonderful, masterpiece-not-so-masterpiece. The colours had turned out all wrong and didn’t match together. What was meant to look like two children on a bridge overlooking the sea looked completely different to what was first imagined when her inspirations had occurred. 

“Argh! How can I possibly fix you?!” Julie called frustratedly at her painting.

Just then, the telephone rang, “BRING, BRING!”

Julie stared at her telephone for a long time before calming down and picking it up.

“Hello, Julie speaking,” Julie said, now in a much calm and composed tone.

“Oh, hi Julie! It’s me, Mari! I’ve come to town for a few days and was wondering if you wanted to have coffee with me sometime, maybe tomorrow?” Mari said.

The two best friends chatted on for a short time before promising each other to meet for coffee the next day and then hanging up.

The next day finally came and as Julie was getting ready to meet Mari, she caught a glimpse of her newest, half-finished, not so wonderful, masterpiece-not-so-masterpiece. It was only a glimpse with the side of the eye, but it got Julie all frustrated again. The happy spirit of the prospect of meeting her friend left Julie as she walked out the door.

As soon as Mari saw Julie, she knew something was horribly wrong.

“Order your coffee, Julie dear. I’ll pay and you tell me what’s wrong,” Mari ordered.

“But how did you know?” Julie asked as she settled into her chair with her coffee.

The two girlfriends settled with their cups of coffee and Julie poured out the problems of her painting.

“Well, why don’t you change it to an abstract piece instead?” Mari suggested.

Marie understood Julie well, as she too, was a painter. In fact, Julie had given her the same piece of advice a few years ago. After some encouraging, Julie saw that it could work! So after their meeting at the coffee house, Julie went home in high spirits. At home, she continued on with her masterpiece with new eyes.