Sunny Day

 

Today is more typical winter weather than we have been having lately.  The temperature, the blue skies.  It finally feels like 'proper' winter weather.

Yesterday I spent much of the day dealing with setting up the second on line 'study' group.  I have enough interest now that I think I will likely set up a third.  I could wait until the first two are done, but that will be about a year from now.  And I think people are feeling anxious, wanting to learn, not able to get to in person classes.  Some have the time now, but may not in a year's time.  So it feels like now is when I should do this thing.

In the meantime, I am also writing the Power Point presentations.  It's been like writing the book, except that really it's a synopsis of the effort that went into the book.  The presentations are allowing me to look at the information in more manageable  chunks.  I'm not writing a book, just the Coles Notes version of the information?  (If anyone remembers Coles Notes - yes, I'm *that* old!)

Part of getting old and having done this craft for as many years as I have done, is that I remember a tonne of stuff.  I even met some of the people we now accept as experts.  Attended seminars, took workshops.  Like Peter Collingwood.  Allen Fannin.  Both now gone.  Others still living have even become colleagues, people I can email and ask questions and get answers.  A privilege I don't take lightly.

As I try to set up these study groups, I remember one of the motivating factors of my doing this - building community.  Modern day hand weavers are thin on the ground.  Those who are interested in the nuts and bolts of the craft, who want to go down the rabbit hole to discover the why of things, who are interested in the craft the way I am are the ones I really want to reach out to.

Pragmatism is a big part of who I am, and I realize that my time is running out for the kind of travelling and effort it took to teach the way I used to do.  It's why I 'retired', after all.  But now, here, suddenly (as it were) I see the possibility of another run at it, via Zoom.  I had to think long and hard about it, but came to realize that the very things I want to share can be done remotely, on line.

We must always stay open to changing times, changing technology, changing the way we think.  Sometimes the sun shines into dark corners and we see things that we had not considered before.