Rust and Renewal

 Hurricane Ian has blasted Florida and South Carolina and is now visiting us in North Carolina.  We woke to heavy winds and rain but thankfully are projected to miss out on the major flooding and destruction seen by neighboring states in the last couple of days.  I have had the sudden impulse to combine all my previous blogs into one place.  I was unable to import The Weaving Song posts as I foolishly deleted the blog and cannot access the management of it.  The content is here.  This idea of blog consolidation and a more general approach came out of nowhere.  I have pondered eliminating blogging as I questioned its value.  To be honest, I have been questioning the value of all my textile efforts.  I love digging in and learning, exploring new to me territory.  Is that enough? 

Yes, it is enough.  It is not so much the perceived (by me or others) value of the created object itself but the act of creating it that is important. The benefits of handwork and craft have been widely researched and documented.  A great article to read is here. This plays out in many ways in my life.  I have documented in my blogs the various ways knitting, weaving, spinning and sewing have soothed and enriched me.  I have mistakenly tried to limit myself to one type of textile work at a time.  Hence the many blog renditions.   I don't know if it is my generation or my specific upbringing, but I was taught to value mastery and achievement.  Not a bad thing but if you apply it to your leisurely pursuits, it can suck the joy right out of the doing.

So that answers the question for me about the value of crafting in my life.  The benefits derived, self-expression, emotional regulation, entertainment, and distance or distraction from hard things and hard people (you may have some of these in your life too) go beyond the thing produced.

I didn't mention one of the greatest benefits of textile exploration, connection.  Friends made and maintained through craft.

Moving forward I hope to use this blog to connect with others and share my thoughts of this wonderful new phase of my life.  Retirement is both gift and challenge.  One of my favorite quotes is below.

What I absolutely want is to suggest that before it's anything else, redemption is God mending the bicycle of our souls; God bringing out the puncture repair kit, re-inflating the tires, taking off the rust, making us roadworthy once more. Not so that we can take flight into ecstasy, but so that we can do the next needful mile of our lives. Francis Spufford

I love the idea of the next needful mile.  I don't know what it is, but I am ready!