A week passes…
and still no needle and thread put to fabric for me (unless you count the mending of three pair of my husband’s summer shorts…which I do not).
But I am joining in with Peggy again, because I did put iron to fabric and have been learning much in the process. Especially today, when I found something in my current Read that helped me to understand my reluctance to get sewing…the reluctance I have had for months now…
“Clarissa Pinkola Estes believes that, “to work in organic matter, one simplifies, stays more toward sensing and feeling, rather than intellectualization.” She continues, explaining that throughout Mesoamerica spinning and weaving of cloth were ways to invite or be informed by the spirit. “There is serious evidence that the making of thread and cloth were once religious practices used to teach the cycles of life and death and beyond.”
-Joan Anderson
A Weekend to Change Your Life
I’ve been working with paper and paste this week, organizing and creating some simple, handmade systems to help me find more time for rest and recreation this summer. But what I begin to see is that some of what I am making time for is the deep work I have been shying away from…
…tho’ I didn’t know that to be so until reading those words. But it is almost always work of the intellect that I have been choosing, for quite awhile. And most of my sewing projects…and what I have been wanting to write here…the ancestry work I keep dancing around…it all leads back to my mother and what her loss has meant to the fabric of my life.
I spent quite a bit of the late Winter with it all, but see that I have lost the thread since then. I suppose I was hoping I had done all the work I needed to for awhile, but I know now that I have just been procrastinating, or perhaps taking a break. But it is time to get back to my untangling and reweaving and to hope that in the quiet hours that I am finding for myself, I will find the courage I need to use those hours for whatever “sensing and feeling” I need to experience…
*photos from some of my posts at Wisteria & Sunshine this week*
Nita July 16, 2013 at 9:08 pm
And don’t forget that, as all good farmers know, a field needs to lie fallow once in awhile in order to continue being productive. 🙂 Perhaps you are lying fallow to allow for rejuvenation of the creative spirit.
Lesley Austin July 16, 2013 at 11:11 pm
Indeed, there is such wisdom in that…I spend much of December and January lying fallow. Now feels like something else…needing to feed the seeds that were planted in the Spring, perhaps?
Corn in my Coffee-Pot July 16, 2013 at 10:29 pm
I liked reading this. I totally understand what you mean about experiencing loss and the effect on our lives…the procrastination and the anticipation of starting again.
I also like what Nita (ahead of me) said too, about the field lying fallow.
I have much to think about now.
Thank you, via the simple woman {th}read, Pat
Lesley Austin July 16, 2013 at 11:12 pm
I appreciate your comment, Pat, and enjoyed the visit to your own blog and its musings.
melissa July 16, 2013 at 10:59 pm
Joan Anderson is so good…spent some alone time at a friend’s empty house a few years ago reading her books from the library. I think I’ll plan on checking them out again…good food for thought, esp. for me now at this stage of life. Thanks for that. 🙂
Lesley Austin July 16, 2013 at 11:13 pm
Melissa dear, I recently reread your comment on my first Joan Anderson post a few years ago. And I wondered if you had actually taken advantage of that empty house and pile of books. So glad to know that you did.
the simple woman July 17, 2013 at 11:11 am
This is simply amazing! I just picked up all three of Joan’s books last week! How great is that dear friend…
Melanie July 17, 2013 at 12:25 pm
Lovely ideas. Who knew an iron could be so beautifully photographed!