International Women's Day

 

I wouldn't call myself a 'public speaker' - mostly I talked to weavers, about weaving.  Nothing like having a sympathetic audience!

But one year, I was contacted by the local organizers for International Women's Day and asked if I would talk to the attendees about being an artist/creativity.

I was pretty desperate for some income and they were offering a $50 fee, and a chance to show my textiles.

Considerably overwhelmed with Life at the time, I then kind of forgot about it until the date came crashing in on my conscious thinking.  The morning of the gathering there were a lot more people than I'd expected, filling the meeting hall at the local hotel.  

As I stood in front of the crowd, I remembered one thing, and only one thing - I was going to end with the phrase "we need our bread, but we need our roses, too".

Then I talked about the creative process, the experience of trying to earn my income by weaving, the benefit of life long learning that weaving provides (as does pretty much any creative endeavour).

I just opened my mind to the experience - as I knew it - to flow from me.

The thing is, mostly my community has rarely glimpsed my lifetime of effort to educate people about weaving.  Once a year I would show up (until 2020) and have a booth at two of the local seasonal sales.  And that was pretty much it for most local people's awareness of me.

But I remember what I did that day.  I don't remember the words, in part because I hadn't written what I was going to say down, nor was it recorded.  I just remember the expressions on the faces of the people, as they thought about how much being creative is part of the human experience.  

Did I change anyone's mind?  No data.  I would assume I'd done a good job if all I did was open a mind or two, here and there.  

And that is 'success' enough for me...