Life Makeover For The Year 2004
- April 5, 2004
Week Fourteen Newsletter
"Getting Untangled"
About a year ago I met a very special woman named Wren Ross.
Wren is a fiber artist who designs and knits gorgeous sweaters,
hats, scarves, shawls, and much, much more. Shortly after our
introduction, Wren offered to teach me how to knit (something
I hadn't done in years). Like a wise and loving grandmother, she
gently guided my hands to the right places and before long I was
off and running, knitting scarves, shawls and for the first time
this year -- a winter hat!
To me, knitting is like "creative meditation." The
repetitive motion calms my mind and makes me feel relaxed and
centered. It also gives me a way to share a part of myself with
someone I love. When I'm creating a gift for someone special I
often focus on knitting love and good thoughts into the object
of my affection. It has become a wonderful new form of self-care.
In addition to being a fiber artist, Wren is also a talented
writer, singer, and actress, and this week I thought I'd share
an excerpt from a story that she contributed to a book called
"Knit Lit: Sweaters and their stories and other writing about
knitting." The story is called "Tangles," and it
uses knitting as a metaphor for life. In this part of the story,
Wren talks about dealing with tangles. She writes:
"I take it personally. I should have put rubber bands around
the skeins, separated them, as the knitting magazine instructed.
Why don't I ever listen to advice? I should give my skeins space.
I should be more organized. Neater. And then I realize that this
tangle has something to teach me about myself: how I get into
tangles and (more important) how I get out of them. So I change
my attitude and realize this tangle is not a problem. It is an
opportunity. This is the first stitch of the "Twelve Stitch
Program" toward fiber/emotional health.
Why *don't* I give my yarns space, rubber bands, plastic bags?
Maybe for the same reason I don't give myself space for all the
different parts of myself. I'm in a rush. I have made a list with
so much to do on it that I am going faster than speeding light.
Watch a bird outside the window?
Take a walk? Meditate? Huh! "Productive Woman" is here
and she must work, work, work!!! So when my back is turned, when
I'm sleeping or cooking, the yarn, like the neglected parts of
myself, gets together and finds a way to make me stop. Take time
and disengage from all the extraneous doings to find a quite way
to be."
I love Wren's new perspective. This week, if you find yourself
all tangled up in a problem or challenging situation, let the
power of metaphor help you to find a creative solution. Take Wren's
advice and use it as an opportunity to learn more about yourself.
How can you use this tangle to your advantage? What caused the
snarl? Did you get pulled into someone else's problem? Imagine
yourself arriving at a solution by gently unraveling the mess
one small step at a time :).
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