Magic…All Around
I went to bed around 10:00 PM Monday night. I was filled with weaving…yes…I’m weaving again! I relish weaving…always an indication that things are easy in my world. I love seeing something unfold. It’s never as I imagined. I mean I’ve had that silk yarn forever! Every time I’ve tried to knit something with it, I end up ripping it out. It didn’t look like fun to me, and it didn’t feel right. I don’t remember why I bought it. It just called to me years…yes years…ago. So it’s been in my stash…waiting.
Several months ago, I started. I got half of the warp on the loom. And then it sat. It sat for a while. The last warp I put on my loom didn’t thread easily…even after I got the each thread through all those little holes in the heddles (needles that hold the threads) and then through the reed (the guide that holds the threads just the right amount of space apart…in this case 12 threads per inch). I ended up taking it off…yes I do know I can do that…I can start over. Then I did just that, and now it was just sitting there….half done.
Warping isn’t my favorite thing to do. I don’t mind measuring the warp (counting out and winding all the threads that’ll go on the loom). That’s active for me…I have to be moving…swaying in a rhythm really. But threading the heddles and the reed…sitting on my ass on a bench leaning over the loom…not so much. So…as I was saying…I’d stopped…some time ago…and there it sat…speaking to me as I passed by, “OK…when are you going to finish…Hey! Are you ever going to pay attention to me?” begging…and eventually…this past weekend…I said “All right!” And I sat down at the loom and…just like that…I finished warping it.
“I’ll just try this stuff,” I thought, as I picked up that silk yarn I thought I didn’t like. Oh my goodness…as I watched it unfold…watched as each shuttle with the fiber passed through the threads…it was as if I were watching the moods of the lake I look at every day, be created before my eyes. And the absolutely amazing thing is that all the threads I had warped had just the right tension…the selvages were even…I mean the thrill of it all lining up perfectly…
I take all of this very personally. As with making bread…or doing anything…yes…including weaving…when things move “smooth as silk,” I take it as a personal message from the universe that all is right in my world…meaning I’m in tune with life…I’m in the right place…at the right time…doing my Creator’s work.
It’s not just with weaving…it’s with driving…and finding a parking place right in front of where I’m going…it’s with reading…and reading the perfect passage (message!) in a book for me at the moment…it’s running into a friend at just the right moment to ask that question I’ve been meaning to ask him/her…it’s having all the right people show up at a meeting and ideas just pop and things just get done…it’s like that.
Certainly not all of my days are “smooth as silk.” We all have our ups and downs. That being said, once again, today I’m reminding myself that my life is my art.
Ever since I became aware of Corita Kent, I’ve known that each one of us is an artist.
Art is how we express ourselves as we live…each moment…each idea, each thought…each creation…whether giving birth to a child, making a table, or chair, putting together our part of a car on an assembly line, building a house, giving a talk, speaking to others, writing a book, teaching a class, caring for someone who is sick. When we think we don’t have time to be creative, we already are, and doorways to more magic always are ready to open for us. Sometimes we just have to take a small step toward the opening…say “yes”…if only for a few minutes at a time. The key for me is to trust…listen…ask questions…ask for more awareness. Then life moves with more ease…requiring less effort than when I trying so hard to make things happen. I relish these days/moments! I’m grateful for them.
I’ll have more of this magic, please.