Virtual

 

You Tube channel

The photo is from the Sweet Georgia Yarns website for the podcast/interview I did with Felicia in 2018.  Me in my happy place.  As I recall the photo was taken for the DVD I did with Handwoven, but I liked the photo because I was truly in my happy place in that moment.  In spite of a whole lot of not-so-great things going on in my life at that particular moment, at that particular time.

Today I've been thinking a lot about what happens next, given the rise of Omicron and the dire warnings coming out of the UK about just how bad things are potentially going to get.  About how so many so-called 'leaders' are essentially throwing up their hands and saying 'oh well, we'll just have to live with it' when what that really means is that a whole lot of people are going to be sick.  And a percentage of them are going to die.  And how that means I am on the front line of being one of them because of my compromised immune system.

And how that will impact me when it comes to teaching.  

I have agreed to teach at Olds next June, but that was before I knew about Omicron.  I was, however, aware that covid would continue to mutate and that come June we might still be in a pandemic.  So I added the caveat 'covid willing'.

During the past two years, we have had to be flexible about our plans.  I'm in my 70s and I well remember life before easy communication around the world.  We had a telephone when we moved into our house in 1953.  I had a photo of myself with the phone on the wall behind me.  Yes, it was mounted to the wall.  And we were on a party line with 9 other households.  If you picked up the receiver, you listened to make sure you got a dial tone before you started dialing.

Mail to Europe would take 6 weeks or more unless you paid for one of those blue tissue flimsies and sent your message air mail.  Which would take maybe 10 days.  In those days, surface meant mail went by boat across the oceans and you just put your package or letter into the mail and hoped to hear back at some point in the future.

If it was *really* important, you sent a telegram.  But that was usually for a death or something else 'important', not just to pick up your phone and make a phone call or text to say hi.

Even when I got my job at the telephone company, phoning overseas meant booking an appointment with the overseas operator in Montreal, not just dialing the number.  And it was woefully expensive.

Flying anywhere was impossibly expensive and a 'holiday' might mean our family would load up the station wagon and the tent, gas stove and cooler.  Or staying with a family/friend in another town for a couple of days.  One delightful summer a group of families rented cabins at a lake and I was invited to stay, in no small part to help supervise the younger kids.

There was no You Tube.  No Zoom.  There were books.  Or you paid big bucks to find a class somewhere and traveled in person, paying for hotel/food etc.

And now, here I find myself in the 21st century, where I can present seminars via Zoom, do digital recordings and have them uploaded to a web site.  Communicate across time zones, either in person or via platforms like this blog, all while the world seems to be collapsing around our ears, given a pandemic and climate change disasters.  Those last are very real for me right now, even though I am personally safe and secure for the moment.

But.  And here's the thing.  Even when there is bad stuff going on, we can still take comfort and delight at the little things.  The things that we don't even have to pay for.  Sunlight on fresh snow.  A flower in bloom.  If you have pets, having one of them want to snuggle with you.  Or being able to get to the loom and make something.

Right now I am awaiting the delivery of the files for the first class with Sweet Georgia.  I am looking forward to helping other weavers figure out what works best for them.  Helping them understand the foundations of the craft.  Encouraging them to be brave and bold and go ahead and make mistakes.  Because in weaving mistakes are not life and death, just some time and materials.  And we can always learn something new.  

If I can't teach in person, I *can* teach virtually, to the best of my ability.

So even as we face another pandemic holiday, I am not going to put too much weight on that.  Instead I will continue to work towards making what I do on line 'better' - with the help of a younger and very enthusiastic team.  I know I'm not perfect.  I know I could always do better.  But with the SOS (School of Sweet Georgia) I will have an opportunity to keep trying, keep explaining, keep answering questions.  And keep helping, as much as I can for as long as I can.

So yeah.  Happy place.  May you all find yours.