Monday night last week we got a curve ball on the Founder’s Circle fit sample patterns we were supposed to work on. We had to pause before we could sew them up to resolve a pattern issue. But instead of packing up and going home, the team rallied. Sarah learned how to sew buttonholes using Lisa’s trusty Baby Lock sewing machine and Tami took a deep dive into the notoriously difficult sleeve cap seems on the final blouses. Reflecting on a rough couple of months of looking for extra support so we can put in more time and coming up short on that front– I reflected on how much joy the work itself brings us.
Sitting together in our small space with Sarah and Tami I asked myself – what if this is all there is for a while? – Just this one night, and a handful of extra hours, me working Mondays, the team slowly learning new skills, chipping away at the Founder’s Circle and 100 Blouses Project and slowly picking up speed? What if that’s what it looks like for a while? And I found myself so satisfied at that thought. The process of doing the work is mostly really great and so, yes we could be good in this place for quite a while longer.
This point was driven home further over the weekend when I spent many hours working on a new design and a new pattern. The work itself brought me so much joy. I found a place to settle into where I could digest all the wild things that are happening in the world and just be present.
I doubt I’m alone in thinking that the world feels like a pressure cooker out there. A message I’ve been getting loud and clear lately is that we have to be present and in the moment to move through difficult emotions. Really, that is the only way through them. So if today that emotion is frustration – the antidote to move through that emotion is sewing, or whatever creative activity you like that demands presence.
And so right now, when things are so uncertain, when scary things are happening in the world, go find your love, find your joy, be in the moment and create more of it. Do it for the love of the work. That will help you to move through the waves of difficult emotions that are rattling around inside us as we bear witness to the turmoil in the world.
Go, fight, win.
Reid