Paused

 

I had intended to leap into the fray this morning, excited to get back to the loom.

Instead?  The pause button got punched.

Doug is still unpacking all the food and personal stuff that we took down for the 10 day stay in Vancouver.  Given covid, we did not eat in restaurants as we would ordinarily, but brought food for breakfast, lunch and snacks, then brought in take away food for dinner.  That meant that we brought dishes and cutlery along as well given neither of us enjoys eating out of Styrofoam containers.  More eateries are moving to paper boxes but anything 'wet' leaks through so we brought large cups and plates to put the food onto.  Which all means there is a lot more unpacking to be done before we even get to the studio stuff, still in the van.

I also had some guild business to take care of, some of which is reaching priority status so I didn't want to let that slide by.  Some people are waiting for information/answers before they could continue.

To be honest, I'm still tired.  

Getting 'old' is a steady increase in lethargy, and increase in just not wanting to rush around anymore.

Frankly I'm getting to the point where I'm looking for a local who will do the weaving teaching, but right now we seem to be all out of people who feel like they know enough. or confidence to take on a teaching role.  Teaching is not for everyone.

When I was first beginning this journey, I had decided I would be a production weaver for 25 years, then teach for 25 years.  Putting me still 'working' at 75.

Instead I did both, concurrently, along with volunteer work for my local, regional and international groups, write articles, weaving almost every day (including designing and loom set up, wet finishing, marketing, retail and wholesale sales, shipping orders, et bloody cetera) and working on the Guild of Canadian Weavers master weaver program.  Out of that I wrote Magic in the Water, then The Intentional Weaver, self-publishing both, therefore needing to do all the marketing and shipping for both of them as well.

I led study groups on line, then during covid, developed Zoom lectures to continue the teaching.  And now?  Teaching for School of Sweet Georgia.

Maybe it's fair and only to be expected that after numerous health issues that have quite literally taken me to the brink of death, that I'm tired.  

I hope to make it through to 75 still teaching, even if it is 'only' on line.

But I've just offered to do a four day (four Saturdays) beginning to weave workshop in hopes of growing more weavers, hopefully one of whom will take on the role of teaching weaving locally.  Or where ever they want to go and do it.

I was helped by older, more experienced weavers all along my journey.  I hope to help others if they wish to take this particular road.

But today?  I'm tired.  If we can get the van unloaded and everything put away, that may well be the limit of what I feel capable of doing. 

And if you are interested in learning from me on line, the QR code on this blog will bring you to SOS and the information to join me there.