A few years ago (quite a few, but let's not count them up) I was asked to do a guild presentation about my life as a professional weaver. After the presentation one person approached me and said that she had re-invented herself three times, with three different professions, but had been intrigued with how I had re-invented myself but always within the context of weaving.
Being the child of a French-Canadian mother and a German-Canadian father, I think I got a double stubborn gene. Add in the Cancer water sign, and stubbornly persistent, or persistently stubborn would pretty much sum me up.
Water tends to meet an obstacle and go under, around or sometimes just plain over, in order to reach it's destination.
While I have not managed to achieve everything I set out to do - sometimes the answer is indeed "no" - it has not been from lack of trying.
After my first craft fair, I completely re-thought my approach to designing textiles, re-tooled my entire inventory, and achieved a modicum of success. Enough to continue, at any rate.
My writing was not an instant 'success' so I kept writing articles, submitting them and when they were rejected - tried again. And again. And again. While my ego cringed, persistent stubbornness would not allow me to give up. My ego was instructed to pull up the Big Girl panties because I was going to continue. As I continued to write and be rejected, I was also honing my writing skills.
Ditto applying to teach workshops. Don't like that topic? How about this one? And I re-wrote my marketing tools to make my workshops sound more...interesting? Appealing? Until guilds started to hire me.
Conferences? Again, multiple applications, multiple rejections. Damn near wore out those Big Girl panties! Get another pair and keep trying.
Chairing meetings? I can do that. Organizing conferences? I can do that. Not getting answers? Nag, nag, nag...in the nicest possible way, of course! Because I wanted, needed, an answer and getting shirty wasn't going to hurry those answers along.
Weaving is all about not stopping, not giving up. I have a high paced month coming up - lots of details to take care of. I am so far 'behind' on where I wanted to be - because Life Happened - and then it didn't (for my mother - and all that that entailed). I am way behind on my writing of The Book and know that after the crazy month of June I'm going to need some time to recuperate - only to get some dental surgery done which may knock me out of being able to weave for at best several days, at worst a week or more.
But I am stubbornly persistent, or persistently stubborn, and like my Cancer water sign, I will go under, around or over the obstacles.
I may not achieve all that I would like to do, but I will do my best to get as much done as I possibly can.
2 comments:
How lucky we all are that you are so very stubborn, Laura Fry. Thank you for all you've done and continue to do for Weaving World.
When we're successful adults we're told were persistent. When we're not as successful we might be called stubborn, or OCD. When we're unsuccessful and still keep trying it may be said we are perseverating. To my mind it's all the same thing, only the perspective changes.
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