Perspective is a funny thing. I was chiding myself for not getting more work done lately, for a whole myriad of reasons, including the fading daylight, which has made it darker on some of the evening trips I've had to take lately. A few weeks ago, I could have been beading but now it is simply too dark. Yesterday, here on the East Coast, all attention was focused on Sandy, the "superstorm." My son's school was cancelled, so he asked me to drive him places as he was bored at home and the weather didn't really worsen until nightfall. All day our power flickered on and off as I tried to do laundry and other things, concerned that we would lose electricity for good at some point. I got all the way through dinner and as I was preparing to sit down and bead, the power went. I was frustrated, but resigned. I lit candles, turned on the flashlights I had stored conveniently following the meteorologist's instructions and helped my son study for a vocabulary test. Just as we were finishing up, the power came back on! I settled down with my project. Not long into the work, my needle snapped in half, an unfortunately common casualty when working with right angle weave. I got out a new needle and struggled to thread it. After more minutes than I like to admit, I finally got it threaded. Just two passes through, though, and I pulled out the eye. More thread snipping to get a clean edge and struggling to thread the thick thread through the thin needle. I had to take a break to eliminate the feeling of frustration, and the double images from squinting. After many attempts, I got it threaded and continued till the thread, shortened by my snippings, came to an end. Before heading to bed, I threaded the needle with new thread and worked it into the project and did a couple of turns so it is ready to go. This morning I awoke to rain, light wind, but power, school up and running and no real problems. Then I saw the news with flooding, fires, wind-ripped buildings and sunken tall ships (one my family actually saw in Florida years ago), worst of all, over 30 people lost their lives. So, a good breakfast of perspective, and I will see how much work I can accomplish today!
Slow and steady wins the race, right?! I am keeping Aesop's tortoise in mind as my piece grows slowly in my hands. Day to day, row after row. Not nearly as fast as I would like, but it is developing. There are only two weeks left for the early deadline, and I am certain not to make that, but I will enter the work in progress, and see what happens. I'm fully committed now, so I will finish it and enter it in an exhibit, either the one in February or another one next year. A favorite piece I made broke a few weeks ago, and that is calling to me to fix that. Also, I received notice of another exhibit today. It is for something completely different and that is capturing my imagination, too. I am already envisioning what I could make for it, and it would have moving parts and lots of color, a big contrast to the mostly monochromatic work I am doing now. A good diversion, even if it's only in my head right now!
My how time flies! I have had a post-it note on my counter to write my blog and just realized it has been three weeks! I have had to be out of town, twice, been to 8 soccer games for my son, more than half an hour away, and other things in my life have picked up in intensity. I was able to do a decent amount of beading in the car on all of these trips, but often didn't have internet access and so the blog fell by the wayside. Also, when progress is measured (literally) in rows, it is difficult to get excited about writing about how many more rows I've finished! If you are reading this and you know me, perhaps you are one of a handful of people who has shared with me that you read my blog, so while I haven't written in three weeks, I have been beading and talking about beading and blogging! Life is definitely like that. Having a habit of writing weekly keeps me on track, but when the rest of my life changes, the routines can get thrown to the wind, even when the intent behind them is still in my focus. My November entry deadline is fast approaching and it is clear I will not be finished on time. Now I need to decide if it is worth photographing my work in progress and trying to enter that with the intention that it will be complete in January (a real possibility). I have had some encouragement from colleagues to do that, so I am hoping I can screw up my courage and do it. We'll see!
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