Gratitude

 

It was a lesson I learned a long time ago - to help someone else did not diminish me in any way.

The pandemic has been hard.  Oh, so hard.  People have had to scramble to keep a roof over their heads, food on the table.  All while dodging a virus that continues to make a large swathe of the population sick.

Since I am immune compromised I have been particularly observant in avoiding crowds, staying home as much as possible, figuring out ways to continue to support and encourage my students on line.  Just after the pandemic was grabbing hold, my computer died and needed to be replaced.  Then I bought Zoom - the professional package so I could host meetings (classes) longer than the 40 minutes the free version allowed.

I have spent literally hours writing Power Point presentations, then the actual time of doing them live, then uploading them to You Tube (unlisted, for my students only).

In many ways doing this has been good for me as I dragged myself through further chronic health issues.  It gave me a reason to get up in the morning and keep going.  

This summer I have also been re-writing my material to hopefully wind up in another on line class.  Even though I've done this kind of thing before, it's still a lot of effort to review, then re-write the material for another look at how threads get turned into actual cloth.  

As I pore through the books in my personal library, I am reminded of the countless weavers who have gone before, learning the technology that was available to them, recording the information for as long as the weaving community finds it useful, valuable.  I am grateful they preserved their knowledge for me to learn from.

And now I put my perspective onto the information, and hope to share what I know about textiles, how to turn thread into cloth.

All this week I have been at the desktop, sifting, sorting, thinking, considering.  Is this important?  Is this necessary for someone to know?  How can I explain it better than I've done before?  What examples will illustrate the process best?  Have I woven enough samples?  

And last but not least - will anyone be interested enough in what I have to say?

Because yes, Impostor Syndrome is a thing and I still question myself.

But regardless - I also know that sharing what I know takes nothing whatsoever from me.  Telling people my 'secrets' does not remove knowledge from me.  

So I will continue for as long as I can, to shine a light on the creation of woven cloth.  It is something I can do from the isolation of my studio, my computer, my internet connection.  And hopefully - covid willing - getting as much of what I know on tape as we can manage.

We are in the midst of an upsurge in covid where I live.  I am really hoping very hard that the numbers start to come down so we can drive to Vancouver the first week of October and get the taping done.  

Stay safe everyone.  If we ever meet irl, I'm a hugger.  But if you aren't, I'll respect that.  Just know that I am...