Sharing

There’s a little voice that nags me every time I start to write something for this blog. What’s the point, it says, to write without teaching or showing something? For a while, I had nothing to answer that with. It came to me today, in bits and pieces, much like the drops of rain filling a bucket just outside the porch (I can hear the tap, tap, thunk, tap). Some of the best teachings in life are simply thoughts shared. What may not seem overly important to me could be a drastic epiphany to someone else. So many things are perceived in different ways. The rhythmic buzz of a sewing machine that is cathartic to me can be as irritating as fingernails on chalkboard to someone else. Perhaps it’s context, what is happening in the world around you, your immediate world.


The important thing is to share. When you create something beautiful, something you love, do you not want to show the world, as a child runs to mommy to show his latest picture? Thoughts can be just as beautiful, maybe more so. Dreams fuel the soul. Keeping them bottled up inside seems a bit miserly. Things we create are dreams made solid, be it a little dress, a simple charm, or a photograph. Everything is up for interpretation. I know there are many things created that leave me scratching my head, but they mean something to others, even if only the maker.


Today, as I work on a commissioned dress, I stop seeing the illustration that inspired it. Instead, I see the gleaming, whisper thin white silk flowing under my hands. I see the hundreds of tiny wrinkles smoothing out beneath my heated iron. There is beauty there, the beauty of the unfinished, of the work in progress. Each step can be both a work of art and meditation, all rolled into one whole, if you let it. Right now, the final product isn’t as important as the steps along the way. What is more perfect, the final creation, or the progress it takes to get there? How can you know, if I don’t share it?