Fifty Shades of 'Done'

 

Done.  

It can be a tricksy thing, done-ness.

Big Projects have many steps, and each step 'done', is one more step towards the Big Done-ness.

In the past few days we have 'done' the ms several times.  And each time, oops - not quite yet.  There seems to always be one more thing, one tiny step more that makes this whole project still Not Quite Done.  Yet.

Much like weaving.

We design a project.  Wind the warp.  Dress the loom.  Throw the shuttle hundreds if not thousands of times.  Cut it off the loom.  Inspect and Repair.  Wet finish - which in itself has several steps of 'done-ness'.  But are we actually Done, yet?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Because sometimes what we are making is the raw materials for another step in 'done-ness'.  Cloth to be cut and sewn into...something.

In the meantime, life goes on, with all it's wondrous potholes and rocky terrain, it's detours and intersections.  

But we are SO close now.  Just two more things to be dealt with.  I think.  I hope.  

Someone once commented that birthing a book was like having a baby elephant.  The process took forever and the labour pains were monumental.

I have sent out nearly all the promotional pdfs now and wait, on tenterhooks, for feedback.  Will people like what I've done?  At this point I have no idea.  None.  I hope they will.  But until they read it and let me know, I have no idea.  Truly.  

In large part, the essays ARE my life, between the covers of a book.  Not all of it, of course not.  But much of what makes me, me, is shared.  I'm in my 70s now and I have lived a life - a much more complex/complicated life than I ever anticipated, growing up in the middle of nowhere, a child of blue collar workers.  I have seen more of the world than I expected, less than I would have liked to have seen.  I have met more people, from more disparate cultures than I had any right to expect, given my background and financial status.  A 'starving artist'.  I suppose one could say I 'cheated' because the vast majority of my traveling was paid for by others - the travel fees I charged as I went hither and thither across this continent.  The northern part of it, anyway.

But still.  A full life.  So many memories.  So many wonderful folk met along the way, so many textiles to whet one's appetite, spark creativity.  Stepping stones.  Each one a thread in the cloth that is my life.

OTOH, I'll be happy to reach the total state of 'done-ness' on this project.  

In the meantime, I have a warp to weave, another to plan, and more tea towels to hem.  Just another Day in the Life with stepping stones of little 'done-ness' leading to the Big Done before the 'next' one.