i remember posting a while ago about Meaning         and          Purpose.

           

sometimes i feel like i really am without either of these.  and i think about it.  sometimes i wonder about whether i have/had/ever will have    any Real meaning or purpose in this life.  i feel small and really, kinda "nothing".

it looked like this, this morning.  a frozen air.  a surprise, to both me and the world out there.

001

 Oddly, today i watched the entirity of Whitney Huston's funeral.  how strange.  i watched it here, on the computer screen, well, a few inches of the screen…maybe 3×5"?   i don't have a TV.

so.  i watched 4 hours worth of her funeral.  the funeral of a woman much younger than i.  a woman that though i never saw any of her movies, never watch any TV, never really ever listen to the radio even, ……….i knew.  i knew her because of the kind of world i live in.  stuff comes to you.  one way or another.  and i knew Whitney Huston to be a voice like no other in our time.  i knew her to be a gentle kind of beauty,  so beauty Full  and all so flawed and weak.   a woman.

BUT a woman who had an incredible gift.  a gift that allowed the possibility of Meaning and Purpose.  but here she was.  dead.  in a baptist church, in a casket, dead. 

many people said stuff.  her young daughter sat somewhere , out of the eye of the camera.  as, it seems she was all along.  this child of such a blinding light.  i wondered what she thinks about meaning and purpose

so

i stitched the SideOat Grama and listened and thought.

002

and i remembered the conversation i had with my son some days ago about the word …….mediocre……..that had come to me in my thought wandering.  that there was a certain kind of freedom coming with the thought that i am just a mediocre person. 

how interesting.

But…i am what i am, like Popeye says.  and being that, i must be what i am, what all or little i carry through the days.  so…i stitch sideoat grama on a Diaries cloth.  ok, then.

 

Posted in

58 responses to “a strange day”

  1. cindy Avatar

    ok, you. i’m going to try to remember all of the thoughts that poured through while reading this.
    first the expected, but still very true- you have purpose & meaning in my life & i’m sure many others in this community. that being said, i know the feeling, the being sad from the feeling & the being ok with it. have always said my headstone should say, “she bucked up & led a good enough life”. i have a friend, who is brilliant, sharp and perfectly content with “average”- that it is a place to want to be & hopes it for her kids. this idea turned my parenting head around.
    and Whitney. we were born the same year. we can be so fragile, no matter what our strengths.
    and just yesterday, i quoted this same line of popeye & had to explain who he was to moon.
    AND the SideOat Grama, oh, my, good lord- those pinky red tips poking out make me want to cry.

    Like

  2. Elizabeth Avatar

    Dearest grace – I’m sure Whitney looked at other peoples’ lives and wondered whether ‘just singing’ justified hers. Don’t think we can get away from this feeling. It’s built in somewhere.
    Good to have grass in the frost, toads in the garden and time to think.
    I’ve just been wrestling with that bleakness too. Work helps, a friend with a cup of tea helps.
    Wish I could make you a cuppa right now!

    Like

  3. Elizabeth Avatar

    Hello grace – one more thought. You don’t mean mediocre, or you shouldn’t. I think you mean unpublished, not famous, not powerful. Might be good to be those things & our culture pushes us hard to want them, but it might not.

    Like

  4. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    Me too–often–just no one in particular but this one who knows herself and what it feels like to live in this skin, think these thoughts and know what I know. There’s the mystery unraveled. Each one of us only one of us, that one that each one only knows. So it must have been for Whitney Houston. Maybe that night there was no one she could share herself with, and maybe there had been many nights like that night. Solitude of being is both a gift and a curse sometimes. It is good to have others with whom one can communicate, For some, the conflicts are never resolved, that delicate balancing on opposites never accomplished. So, I went about my own day, performing some out of doors errands, stocking the larder, posting some letters (one to you) and cooked, ate, emailed a few friends, had one phone conversation, watched a moving episode of the new “Upstairs Downstairs” on the computer-a DVD a departed neighbor left to me, wept as I washed dishes, having been moved by a final scene. Nothing much of note. Nothing to shake the world. Enough for me. This morning I took a snapshot out the front window of the dawn rising and a new moon. Now, I’m winding down toward the cozy comforter where I’ll read another chapter until my eyes shut. So goodnight blessed Grace, and sweet sleep and waking to all who read these words.

    Like

  5. Jacky Avatar
    Jacky

    You are special Grace, to so many of us out here in blogland…far from mediocre and definately with purpose in your life. Look at your wonderful cloths and their stories evolving; this blog of yours that shares some of your life with us and challenges us to really think about things; you share the amazing land around you with us.
    You touch lots of us with your beautiful heart.
    Jacky xox

    Like

  6. nemo-ignorat Avatar

    I think, no one really has a real meaning/purpose in life and at the same time we all have a meaning/purpose in life. Having a purpose in life sounds like destiny and I don’t believe in destiny or fate. But I think, there is something in everyone, some kind of small purpose, something which makes us whole and that is what we call purpose and/or meaning.
    The human mind tends to get lost in such searches and I think, most people lost the search itself, their way and forgot how to look or even that there is something they could/should look for. Which is why most people tend to live through buying. Stuff to fill that hole inside. Consumerism as a substitute for a real life as a substitute for purpose and meaning.
    So everyone can be someone (and not only buy something) and I think in this small community of stichers and crafters we actually crossed this gap and we already are someone. We found this little something in ourselves which makes us whole.
    And then – in me – there is doubt. Doubt that comes as part of my education, my conditioning when I grew up to become a ‘good housewife’ and a ‘good member of society’. This makes me doubt myself.
    And then there is this part who wants to be famous, out of the ordinary. Not because of fame itself but because this part wants to be recognized as something special. Because my education didn’t teach me to see myself as something special. Never dared to see myself as something special.
    I think, what we stitchers and crafters do is special and that we are special and we really found something to fill that hole inside, the searching hole, I think, we found meaning and purpose.
    I think, we all are whole.

    Like

  7. saskia Avatar

    hi Grace and all those who have already commented and all those who will,
    yes this wondering we humans do……(my dog never questions his life, I look at him and he just is, always.)
    We’re born, one day we will die and in between muddle along; I am who I am, I live Grand and Compelling on my square centimetre, sometimes I’m happy whilst sad, because I am alive.
    Mediocre or not, in the grand scheme of things, who is the judge? Certain selfportraits by Rembrandt still move me as does an antique sampler made by an unknown stitcher; all kinds of hand-made stuff can carry one through the ages and touch one. Lots of thoughts, not a lot of answers, I turn to my children and listen
    My youngest son: Mum, you know life is a sour plum!

    Like

  8. saskia Avatar

    P.S.
    Grace, you move me

    Like

  9. patricia Avatar
    patricia

    did the same thing yesterday w/no prior intention of doing so. stitched too but can’t figure out how to attach it to this blog. so our fabric has holes and flaws and different colors/patterns/seams–but it’s all from the same bolt isn’t it, and i struggle being o.k. when i spend a day looking at the worn hole–til i realize that’s what let’s the light through. so with you.

    Like

  10. Doris Avatar
    Doris

    Mediocre – in a sense of dull, second-class? or more neutral in a sense of average ( as Cindy says) Who is the judge? I don´t think that our real self is thinking in judgment, that is our education, the people around us and the most of us are not able every time to realise what comes from outside or inside. As children we depend on what others think about us. Are we worth to be loved? As nemo ignorat says: we doubt. We make a lot of efforts to show, that we are special and not mediocre or average. Sometimes it takes nearly a whole lifetime to realise our real self and not to judge any more.
    We should stop the judgment and feel what is real in this moment given. Grace your creativity is real, when you imagine butterflies on your cloth when you arrange your pile and make a breathtaking picture.
    I agree we all here have found something what gives us the feeling of being our real selfs. Sometimes it is only one moment but it is. and we express ourselves through cloth, we express what is special perhaps extraordinary perhaps not, compared to others perhaps average perhaps not, but does that matter?? It is our moment our expression.
    These extraordinary persons with special gifts who cannot support life make me very sad. Perhaps these gifts are combined with a special sensitivity and they cannot feel a border to others and loose theirselves. That is so sad.
    Grace thank you for your thoughts and thank your for being you.

    Like

  11. ali Avatar

    lovely, lovely stitching. I know you only through your blog Grace, but I do know enough to know that “mediocre” does not seem to fit. Merriam-Webster defines the term as “moderate or low quality, value, ability, or performance : ordinary, so-so” — that is so, so not you!

    Like

  12. deanna7trees Avatar

    your post makes me think of a statement an old friend made when we reconnected after many, many years. she said to me “you had so much potential that i’m surprised you have not become a success”. we obviously have a different definition of success because i feel quite successful. i have lived my life the way i chose to, i have helped many people along the way and am now retired and enjoying how i spend my time and hopefully inspire some people to try new things with the needlework, etc. that i post.
    i’ll bet all this applies to you as well, grace. i know you help people and inspire many as i can tell from the wonderful comments you receive. that would be ‘meaning and purpose’ enough for me. and i think that we all have positive effects on the people around us without even trying. i hope you will re-think what you are feeling and maybe see it from a different point of view. sending you love.

    Like

  13. deb Avatar

    I had just heard Kevin Costner’s words at Whitney’s funeral and was wiping away the tears when I read your post and spilled a few more. You mentioned your son and Whitney’s daughter and there is much more for me to think about and say to you along those lines.

    Like

  14. Yvonne Avatar
    Yvonne

    I have just been thinking about what does it mean to ‘be somebody’? And where I’ve gotten to with it, is that what matters is not the ‘what we do’ but ‘that we do’. I don’t mean some grandiose contribution, but feeling that how I lived my journey was true for me and an embodiment of the values I hold – and that that was/is the meaning and purpose. I really enjoy reading your thoughts.

    Like

  15. CopperCreeker Avatar

    it’s odd that you see yourself as mediocre. i found your site thru spirit cloth and from the first visit i have come away with the feeling of how unique you are in both crativity and thoughts. i feel that i’m not the only one who sees you as unique.

    Like

  16. Wendy Avatar

    Grace, the grass is amazing, truly amazing. It looks like it could be moving, the seeds trembling, more mobile than the stalk. WOW. And then this other stuff; I was talking with a colleague the other day and he said something that surprised me, that life is a vocation. You know, day-to-day life. It stopped me in my tracks, because, ah, you know, I had, um, kind of thought my damn job was my…. but your comments here today made me realize I agree with him. Work can be mediocre, but life probably can’t. Your life is, most certainly, a vocation of the kind he named; your inspiring life. I’m not sure this ties right up with your thoughts, but it is where they took me, today. Happy Flag Day or whatever it is tomorrow- here in Canada it is the oddly named “Family Day”…

    Like

  17. Jacqui Avatar

    I wonder if the Monarch butterfly wonders the same things sleeping in its chrysallis, turning from a caterpillar to a butterfly? Mother Nature is the great healer of all things.
    xx

    Like

  18. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    i am going to try to really “get somewhere with this”, this
    time. not going to just drift away from it, but stick with it and see where the thought goes.
    it’s really not at all a sad thread of thought. it’s a
    very “concentrated” thought that takes in all my life that
    has come before. it’s an “ok, what now?” thought. all
    my life i have been a little “driven” to accomplish things.
    they have been very different things. and i’m wondering
    if part of it is that it’s really….easy now. i only
    really have my self to take care of. maybe i just don’t
    know what to do with that? but…as i write that, i
    realize the other part…that….i feel now more ummm,
    responsible to the “world”. to now give my fair share to
    the planet. what DOES that mean?????

    Like

  19. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    i would like very much to sit and have a tea with you…
    i love how you quietly and gently love your world. seeing
    how you do that is important to me.
    and i like that you say “it’s built in somewhere”….this
    tells me that i am not alone with this concern….

    Like

  20. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    no, i DO mean mediocre. or, ok, just a plain person.
    this is how i feel now.
    published/famous/powerful…not those either, but
    i have had a really good and interesting life so far and
    somehow i’d imagined that it would all uhhh, ADD UP to
    something
    oh…i am really struggling with this…but that’s as
    it should be.

    Like

  21. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    i love reading these words. and maybe that’s a clue to
    where i want to go with this. it’s not like i want or
    need absolute answers to anything, but to WONDER. to
    really WONDER about it all. to wonder diligently, taking
    things seriously.
    i read a thing in the LA times about her funeral i think
    the writer was Randall Roberts and i went back this
    morning to find it…he was talking about who all sang
    or spoke for her, all the famous people, gifted people,
    accomplished people, but then said this: “…But honestly,
    none conveyed the life of Whitney Huston like that choir standing behind that chrome casket, the collective voice, that rose from so many individuals simultaneously to become unity personified. It’s one that brought together not only the spirit of everyone watching at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, but touched the ears of everyone streaming worldwide online, those watching it on entertainment outlets and replaying it on UTUBE. That singular song rising from the choir contained generational multitudes, and was more life affirming than the greatest sermon, passed down from mother and father to son and daughter, it connects the young and the old, the black and white the rich and the poor — and as proven on Saturday morning, the living and the dead.”

    Like

  22. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    Jacky, the cloths and the things i put here about this
    place are just what i love. they come easy. they just
    take time doing, seeing, loving.
    and…MAYBE that’s enough????? hmmmmmm.

    Like

  23. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    there is a lot in what you wrote.
    and what comes in the moment, is that it’s not a
    thing of “special”, i think we are all very much
    that from our beginnings. but, oh jeez, that we GIVE
    from that unique self we are…..

    Like

  24. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    I am the “judge” of my self. because as is said, i know
    me. i know where i’ve been, all that i have been
    given. each of us is unique. we find communion with
    others whose uniqueness resonates with ours. but i
    think we need to ummm PARITCIPATE….as you say,
    “live Grand and Compellingly on my square centimetre”. This is important………

    Like

  25. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    P.S, saskia…i’m thinking we all are the Choir. and
    it is good, having eachother swaying and raising our
    voices, our needles next to one another, feeling the
    body heat of the Unity. this very well may be IT.

    Like

  26. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    Patricia…yes. the SAME BOLT, LOOM.
    i so much love the worn holes, yes. so much light.
    a beautiful visual comes with your words………

    Like

  27. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    it’s kinda taking some form i think…
    like the expression of the day now is..”i’m feelin it”….
    that…average, ordinary, IS the EXTRAORDINARY if it
    is lived fully.
    maybe part of what i deal with is having seen through
    the bullshit at such an early age…like 7, 8 yrs of age?
    younger even…

    Like

  28. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    i like so so.

    Like

  29. nance Avatar
  30. nance Avatar

    yes… and that too is enough.

    Like

  31. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    deanna…i think we all rise up from “different places”.
    i can FEEL my purpose. i just can’t see it.
    my purpose is not to insprire or whatever, my purpose here is to LEARN.
    oh woohoo…another clue……
    LEARN.
    by learning, deeper and deeper,
    YES! a clue!

    Like

  32. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    love you, she of color and heart………..

    Like

  33. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    YES. “lived my journey was true for me and an embodiment
    of the values i hold”, YES. and for each of us these
    words hold varied nuance.
    it’s not somebody i want to be, it’s the me that i know
    is me. that still feels fragmented in a way……

    Like

  34. nance Avatar

    grace you really are a piece of work!

    Like

  35. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    HEY, Copper……..thank you for saying that, but whenever
    we see something in someone else, isn’t it a kind of
    mirror? thank you for coming and please feel welcome
    any time.

    Like

  36. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    i wish we had a Family Day to celebrate here…
    i didn’t realize that…
    yes. vocation.
    your words made me think of an interview someone was
    doing with the Dalai Lama. the journalist asked, in
    regard to the great sadness of Tibet losing it’s homeland
    ….being refuges…how he “could always be smiling????”
    “It’s my profession.” he said, with a smile

    Like

  37. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    Jacqui…i don’t know. but my hope is that they are so
    much more evolved the human beings…….
    love to you and New Zealand and your moon home.

    Like

  38. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    nance…yup. i wear myself out.

    Like

  39. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    no. not quite. part of it, but not all of it.

    Like

  40. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    I’m back again late on Sunday because this conversation is so deeply nourishing–Late last night I found the link to the replay of the live stream broadcast of that three hour service and posted it for as an Extra Spirit Muse very early this morning (http://www.livestream.com/aplive). Then I watched, and/or listened still going about the rest of my business. Two moments stood out for me–Alicia Keyes moving song and Kevin Costner’s stunning reminiscence of their long friendship– Stopped me, drawing my full attention.
    How right you are, that that generation to generation link, that boundary-crossing, division-destroying, universal love, for a moment centered around one woman, connects us. We use our beloved icons to rouse that spirit in ourselves, to reconnect, and I think we use you, and Jude, and each other for that same worthy purpose. We are so fortunate.

    Like

  41. Robyn Ayaz Avatar
    Robyn Ayaz

    Dear Grace, we know each other a little from Jude’s blog and classes and this is my first time visiting you, don’t know why! Your beautiful comments shine out on Spirit Cloth and I often want to reach out and hug you, as I do now. I really really know what you mean and I, who am trying to re-invent myself after having to give up work for health reasons, have felt that very same feeling so many times. Tracing through the threads I see you have love around you and that is good. I always thought my life would have been different in lots of ways but now I just want to do something creative every day and my frustration when I don’t do that or can’t is gut wrenching. I love what you are doing and although I don’t know about your life and what it has dealt you, I see that you are trying to be honest and true to you and that is SOMETHING!

    Like

  42. Deb G Avatar

    Just quickly, got to leave soon, but this is it for me “ordinary, is the extraordinary if it is lived fully.” And “participate,” that too…

    Like

  43. Mo Crow Avatar

    what a great thread, thanks to everyone for such great responses & Grace Crow Woman, Cloth Conjuror… your words ring so true, your blog is like a window to your soul… just found these lovely quotes to help buoy your heart and set your compass-
    “I should advise you to put it all down as beautifully as you can — in some beautifully bound book,” Jung instructed. “It will seem as if you were making the visions banal — but then you need to do that — then you are freed from the power of them. . . . Then when these things are in some precious book you can go to the book & turn over the pages & for you it will be your church — your cathedral — the silent places of your spirit where you will find renewal. If anyone tells you that it is morbid or neurotic and you listen to them — then you will lose your soul — for in that book is your soul.”
    from an article in the NY Times in 2009
    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/magazine/20jung-t.html?ref=carlgustavjung
    “A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.” — Oscar Wilde
    “Art arises when the secret vision of the artist and the manifestation of nature agree to find new shapes.”
    – Kahlil Gibran
    “In the night we stumble over things and become acutely conscious of their separateness, but the day reveals the unity which embraces them. ” — Rabindranath Tagore
    “Artifacts are the physical manifestation of dreams, ideas, and great deeds … some point to successes, some point to great mistakes.” — Bruce Wells
    these quotes are all from Changing Places
    http://www.woodka.com/
    via Whiskey River
    http://whiskeyriver.blogspot.com.au/

    Like

  44. Jeannie Avatar
    Jeannie

    I have struggle with this very question for years. Why am I here and what is my purpose? Then a couple of friends said something to me that made me stop in my steps. The light bulb in my mind light up and I realized that I do have meaning and purpose, just not the grandiose type that makes news (for that I am grateful! lol!). Sometimes we are so blind to what we put out in the world, we feel we are insignificant. It is only that we are humble and do not realize the impact we have on our world. I now know that I leave a place better than how I found it. I share the beauty of nature with others and I take the talents I have to share the beauty of cloth and thread. Sometimes you just need someone to turn on the light bulb for you. xo

    Like

  45. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    Robyn…thank you for coming and thank you for your
    thoughts/words. i have come to “know” you too from
    Spirit Cloth and am glad you came.
    maybe it’s all just in the constant asking of the
    question, the wondering. maybe.
    thank you….

    Like

  46. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    Mo…YOU DID IT!…i love most of all the quote of Jung.
    I spent some of the best time of my life studying his
    works…going to that internal landscape….
    THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR taking the time and effort to
    get these words here. they are a strong part of the
    record of this period of time.
    and yes…LOVE the flutterers from the TED video…
    how so of Spirit they are…butterflies, yes…but
    watching the Bats…
    we have bats here….i watch them summer evenings and
    they bring such happiness.
    so…more Thank you and even more…..

    Like

  47. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    we’ll see. maybe, i’m thinking today as i was at work
    away, maybe it’s Focus that is so hard for me.
    I LOVE a lot.
    i LOVE doing a lot.
    I have always been spread out all over.
    but…maybe there’s a reason for that.
    we’ll see.
    xoxo and xo to You….

    Like

  48. jude Avatar

    the razor’s edge

    Like

  49. CopperCreeker Avatar

    thank you grace. you are one of my inspirations.
    i visit every day but i’m a ‘lurker’ and rarely post but i could not let the mediocre comment go. i had to add my 2 cents worth. :0)

    Like

  50. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    well…we all do it how we need to do it, but i makes
    a Good difference to me that you
    showed up

    Like

  51. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    it makes

    Like

  52. lynda merry Avatar
    lynda merry

    grace, you are probably finished with this conversation, but i just wanted to say thank you, for bravely saying out loud, unedited, what so many of us are probably thinking, about our own meaning and purpose. personally, those same thoughts creep into my head often, especially since i stopped working at a “real job” a few years ago. you stirred up quite an amazing conversation here with three words: meaning, purpose, mediocre. i wrote six pages to myself and still have more to say. but, without writing it all down here, i came to the conclusion that i’m really ok (finally) with my simplified life, and that my mission these days is to be healthy and nourished and rested and happy so i can be ready for what’s handed to me next. and what’s next could be as big as caring for someone in their final days, or as small as making eye contact and sharing a smile. it all matters, even if we don’t know to what extent it does…
    thank you
    you amaze me in so many ways

    Like

  53. Jeannie Avatar
    Jeannie

    Ah yes, that focus thing! I try, but it is like asking me what my favorite color or flower is – it depends on the day and my mood. I admire those who focus on one project or craft. I am a hummingbird. I flit from one flower to the next, trying to find the sweetest nectar. In the end, I feel happy because I am always learning. Recently I have wanted to learn the tales of my ancestor’s native lands, how to add metal to my work, and the phases of the moon and their effect. Then there are my normal obsessions – the garden, stitches, and dye. Add watercolor and creating my own paper, and you get a glimpse into my mind. I have come to term with this scattered brain and embrace it – it is who I am. xoxo

    Like

  54. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    Lynda…nope. not done with it. so,
    THANK YOU for taking the time to add your thinking to
    the soup….
    YES. am very OK too, with a simplified life. that
    began for me, when i left the other one in Michigan, 20
    some years ago. and i do not regret that. ever.
    and i guess i want to look more closely at how i weigh
    things, and what i place as the “weight” on the other
    side of the scale. right now, i am healthy, nourished,
    rested and happy. i am caring for 2 people in their final days. i argue with a fellow launderer at the laundromat
    about why i should be a born again christian rather than buddhist and then have a long conversation with the guy
    at the tire place about how “things have changed”. eye
    contact…. heart contact….abounds. AND, i am learning to make Cloth, so i EVEN, have FINALLY found THE THING that
    creatively/artistically allows me to express the parts of all the above that has no words.
    it is a very GOOD life.
    SO WHAT IS IT I’M TALKING ABOUT HERE? !!!?, i ask self…
    ????????????????????
    it’s different for each of us. what i still need to
    accomplish
    is going to vary in nuance from what you need, what Whitney Huston needed. and that, for each of us is
    extremely singular, known only to ourselves.
    but there’s something still i need to do. so….this
    conversation will continue now, and i hope i stick with
    it long enough to “get someplace”.
    THANK YOU X many for your words here. thank you.
    love and regards to your 6 cloth people…..

    Like

  55. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    love this, “the normal obcessions”…smile.
    well…i have found “the sweetest nectar”.
    Cloth making is that for me. and i can see that road
    ahead in learning cloth making as endless and that very honestly fills me with real complete joy.
    again, as i said to Lynda below, i think i’m closing in
    on something…and it’s about time. hope i don’t
    …..what…..hope i don’t CHOOSE to let it go again.
    THANK YOU for adding to my understanding here…xoxo

    Like

  56. Jacky Avatar
    Jacky

    Definately a BIG part of it Grace… we can feel and share your love for all of these things through your blog. We can tell how special you are…that is a good thing!
    Jacky xox

    Like

  57. Rene' Avatar
    Rene’

    I’m going to “jump” in here again, as this post has been swirling through my head this last while.
    This “what am I contributing” or “am I doing enough with my life” is a quandry that I have danced with for a very, very long time. I guess that I go through phases of being “okay” with my own introspection or expression or development, (if it can be called that), then much of the time, thinking I could have “served” or be “serving” in a much more visible way.
    I’m still weighing this.
    But – there was a time when this was very much in the forefront of my days, and I had the privilege of spending time, in private, with John O’Donohue – the Irish poet/priest/scholar/mystic who wrote the book “Anam Cara” (Soul Friend), among others. We were driving in the car and discussing this very thing, and I was explaining to him how torn I was with either wanting to “save” or serve in some profound way, or wanting to live in a cave. After pausing a moment, he said to me that he had a very special friend who was a monk and who was of the very firm belief that “there is much to be said for living in a cave.”
    The conversation obviously did not end my ruminations – but it has stayed with me, hovering with that air of importance.

    Like

  58. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    “still weighing this”
    maybe that’s it…to keep weighing, keep asking the
    question of ones self

    Like

Leave a comment