Spirals

With the arrival of a very late summer, I have promised myself to spend some time outside each nice day.  I've been taking my hemming out to the carport where Doug has tables set up for safe social distancing for visiting with friends.  I bring my ipad so I can listen to music and a cold drink and my bin with tea towels, pin cushion and thread.  I enjoy the gentle breeze and the not too hot temperature (it was 76F yesterday) and work on the black/red tea towels.  Altogether pleasant.  And a much needed soaking up of the sun.

Well, I'm sitting in the shade, but...

Yesterday I also finished threading the rose/teal warp and today's goal is to sley and tie on.  I received the written work from another Olds student, so today I might sit outside and read through them.  The weather is supposed to stay like this for the week and the black/red towels will soon be done and it will be a while before any towels come off the new warp.

But I was thinking about how life is full of cycles.  These cycles are not circles but spirals.  Every warp I put on the loom I work at doing it better, getting more 'perfect' results.  And every time?  I fail.  There is always something that isn't quite 'right'.

None of it is a deal breaker (so far) but rather than being dismayed by this lack of perfection, I keep working at it.

Some of it is just because it's a new loom (even at one year old, it's still 'new') and some of it is because I know that the slight 'not perfect' will not, in the end, very much affect the finished result.

So yes, there are tiny differences in the sections, not all are perfectly flat.  Some of the threads are shorter, some longer.

As a new weaver I would fret about such things, but eventually I learned that for most of what I was making those slight differences 'came out in the wash' - so to speak.

Slight imperfections in beat.  Slight tension differences.  They didn't actually matter when all was said and done.

But that doesn't mean I don't try.  I do.  I try very hard to beam a 'perfect' warp.  And don't ever quite make it. 

At some point in life I have found that I just have to get on with it.  And trust in the process to provide something that is close to what I want.

And really that is what life is all about, not just weaving.  We do the best we can.  We try to do it better than before.  We continue trying.  And the same lessons seem to come round to 'test' us over and over again.

One of my 'failings' as a person is my lack of patience.  Over and over again my patience has been tested.  And when I think I've got it?  It comes around again.  Something else will happen that will require patience.

Have I finally mastered it? 

Only partially.  There are things that I can be patient about now, finally.  Things that I have absolutely no control over, like a pandemic.  I think I have learned that one during the several times I have needed to self-isolate due to health issues - broken ankle (non-weight bearing), chemo, by-pass surgery.

All of those things needed me to just let them play out. 

And so it is it with the pandemic. 

I'm not saying it is easy, of course it isn't.  We all have things we were looking forward to - be that jobs, family events, travel, education.  All had to be put on hold - or people had to find other ways to fulfill their wishes.

We live in the age of the internet and now we have things like Zoom meetings.  Not perfect, far from it.  But I can continue to blog, to reach out to whomever wants to read what I say.  I can message friends.  I can have visits with friends via Skype. 

I can take seminars or classes if I wish (or people can take from me via Long Thread Media!). 

Books might not be possible but both of mine are available in PDF format.  Or people can check the video clips I uploaded to You Tube.

Human beings have managed to survive pandemics throughout history.  We will survive this one, even though our plans may suffer while we do it.

My focus is to stay as hopeful and positive as I can.  I will continue to try to help people as much as possible through the internet.  I see people providing services/products that I feel are valuable and will share those resources when ever I can.

This is a time to help each other.  It is the only way forward, as far as I am concerned.