Thursday, June 21, 2012

Learning Patience


Patience can teach you how to do things in a new way.


A little over a week ago I broke my arm.  I'm doing ok but I will have a cast for some weeks.  This brings me to my topic: Learning Patience.

I would have included a photo of my arm but when I saw the above image for a MacDonald's ad I had to use it instead.  It is the perfect demonstration of the plight of all of us when we are given a new challenge.  The challenge might be an arm in a cast or not having the perfect studio or ________.  You fill in the blank.  You know what you want to do but you can't do it in the usual way or like everyone else does.  At that point you are faced with the choice of blowing your cool, throwing the "burger" against the wall or you can put the sandwich in the other hand and enjoy your meal.

Ask What If? is the title of one the workshops I teach.  One of the exercises is called: What If Things Change?  The thought behind this lesson is that life and life circumstances are never static. We get into ruts.  Ruts can be lovely.  You just jump in and follow the well worn path.  You don't look right or left or up or down.  You just move forward.  It sounds good but think about it this way.  You plan a trip from the east coast to the west coast.  You have a magic carpet but it only works on one connecting highway.  This means you'll miss all the sights that aren't on this one route AND if an evil genie zaps your carpet from underneath you you may not have a clue how to proceed.  In the class we then explore "doing things differently".

My left arm is the "booboo"arm but happily I am right-handed so I am learning how to wrangle fabric, scissors, dye, sewing machine with that precious appendage.  I have spent a few days cutting and sewing strips.  Pinned them all to my design wall stared at them for several days,  then took them down and from that magical place new fabric found its' way onto the wall and I have a new piece underway that shows promise.  It could not have materialized (no pun intended) if I had not relaxed and "put the burger in the other hand".

By the way I'm learning to type with one finger.  Neat ;-)

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