Beginner Mind

One of the most valuable things a teacher can do is fail.  Failure is a wonderful reminder of how it feels to experience 'beginner mind'.  When things don't go right, right from the get-go, you are forced to remember another time, another place, when you had to think through a problem and find a solution.

While working on the latest rayon chenille warp today, I found myself thinking about the Megado.  I bought the Megado for the benefits I knew it had, smaller footprint, easier to operate, but forgot about the fact that I did not befriend the AVL in a warp or two.  In fact, it took over a year to become friends with that loom, constantly tweaking my processes all along the way.  Then, when I upgraded to the Compu-Dobby, I had to do it all over again.   And again when the air assist was added.

Beginner mind helps remind me to be compassionate with my students.  Especially the Olds students.  Some of them are very experienced, which usually means they have processes in place that they might have to work hard to change if they decide to do that.  Some of them are quite inexperienced, which means they may not have the vocabulary - of language and of processes - in order to grasp principles.

This afternoon I beamed the second last rayon chenille warp.  Doug has just made a small tweak to the Megado and if all goes smoothly with these last two chenille warps, I could get back to the Megado by Wednesday.

I have a threading designed for the next test warp, and I am scaling up slowly.  Instead of 10" in the reed, it will be 12 (minus 4 ends, due to the repeat) and it will be beamed for three scarves instead of two.

I will pay more attention to the rhythm of this loom, which is very different from the AVL.  I think I have the threading sorted, with a stool that I can fairly comfortably sit at to thread.  I'm hoping Doug can install the lamp holders before Wednesday, too, because we have had a number of grey dreary days and it will be another dark navy (mostly) warp of 2/16 bamboo rayon - which is difficult to see.

Without the pressure deadline of trying to make inventory, I can relax and let myself think through additional tweaks. 

Remembering to embrace beginner mind was a good reminder today.  A little compassion for me, as I slither along on the slippery end of the learning curve.