I didn’t expect to get into my studio so soon. Just one day after Jon’s surgery he was up and walking, taking pictures, and planting nasturtium seeds in his garden.
He’s feeling his foot again and some pain. But he says the pain is a good reminder not to overdo it.
By the afternoon it was strangely hot, in the mid 80’s. I sat in my studio hand sewing the openings in my Flower and Pollinator Potholders, when I felt sweat trickle over my belly. My first thought was that it was too hot for April.
But then I decided not to resist it. I relaxed into it, and let myself feel the heat.
Even though I’ve only been away from my studio for a day, it seems like longer. Time was not itself yesterday and today seems too soon for things to be getting back to normal. I don’t know how to think about it or explain it any better.
But as the day grew warmer I took two of the wooden storm windows off my studio so I could open the windows. I already had the door open and with the windows open too, my studio began to breathe. As I pushed the needle through one piece of fabric, then the other, and pulled it out the other side. I fell into the rhythm of sewing.
Even the sound of the cars and trucks going by on Route 22 was soothing in its familiarity.
My creativity takes many forms including writing and drawing and taking pictures and videos. But nothing is as healing to me as sewing.
There is something cathartic in the physical act of pushing the needle through the fabric knowing it will join the two pieces of fabric together. Whether it’s by hand or on a sewing machine, I get so much satisfaction from seeing that place where they meet. Such a delicate thing thread is, yet it has so much strength.
I’m just about finished sewing the Potholders I started last week. I’ll put them up for sale in my Etsy Shop tomorrow.
