Piecing to Wholeness

Looks like this day is all about piecing what I've cut and pinned the last few days before. Like many other steps in quilting, this one doesn't look like much in a photo. And like our lives in process, change is ever present and quite subtle. We need to do the mundane things that become ritualized or routinized in order for our bigger goals to manifest.

What I have been doing is moving my projects to sit around my work station and then just keep chain piecing. Its almost mindless, and creates thought of what it might be like to work in a factory or an office doing the same thing over and over.

What is the difference between ritual and routine? Perhaps its just the words we use. Ritual conjures the sacred and profound, where routine seems mundane and boring. To do a ritual is to be a Priestess at an altar, as a member of an elite group serving a divine force that is sparked from within. To perform routines is to be ordinary, human, and accountable to some outside force for a paycheck that is always less than substantial.

The other piecing projects laying at my workstation are the two comfort quilt tops for the guild. Right now, its just joining blocks in rows and as soon as that part is finished, rows get joined for the top.

Sure, I could work on any one of these projects to finish them, but its not my style to do only one thing at a time. I NEED the variety as a stimulation. Also, if I get stuck on a block like I am with this month's 12" Christmas swap, I can set it aside and keep working on something else.

Its a piece to the whole. Each project is a piece to the whole. 

Sometimes, a wounded child falls down, scrapes her knee, and needs attention. It may not be a life-threatening event, but she is crying, and while it hurts a little, her whole world is disrupted because of an event that came fast and unexpectedly. I remember one time I fell as a child and hurt myself enough to go to the ER; I remember another time I fell water skiing and got so scared; and I remember one time I tripped in a parking lot a couple of years ago and was so embarrassed that I hurried into my car, and then felt the pain. The older I get, the harder it is to fall. 

These are my experiences that were the challenging pieces of my whole being. No one picked me up, but I kept going on my own and I think that is what we all do for most of our lives. It simply makes sense to me to have all these on-going projects that seem mundane and tedious. They are not. They are part of the sacred work I do and I am a Priestess creating with love and honoring life through my fabric arts.