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what on Earth?

20220811_162834

 


20220811_164838

i needed to look today.    These have been in one of the two Take Baskets.   Along with some others and a baggie of very small scraps.  That  would be just randomly tucked in there as i was making things and not wanting to take the time to put them away in one of the big bags.   Or,  in the case of these in the pics,  ones i just felt really attached to in some time.  

it's been some days since i made the agreement with Self to stop making for  a while.  Time Being.  just stop.   so, aside from working to stitch the Stick House,   i haven't touched or looked at cloth.   All those  13 bags are just  "back there"  in that back room with the Roof Bag,  waiting for me and Alyssia to have time.    Often my mind would drift to making,  because its been so long,  years of it,   but i just  say " i'm not going there "  and turn away.  Just softly.   But surely.   Today tho  i really wanted to look in that basket and so…here we have it.  Cloth.    in all its Glory.   and i think …..What on Earth am i going to do?   What on Earth CAN i do?    The pleasure…and i wish there was a different word…but the Pleasure of the experience of  cloth…just as is,  just in and of  itsSelf    is immense and well,  FEELS so so Good….just to set in on the table,  move it around,   BEHOLD it,   again…as is…..

and maybe that can be enough?   Could it?   Just me and cloth and thread…hanging out?   Just BEing with one Another?  Do i need to "legitimize"  this Love by making it INTO something????     I'm  not  in need any answers yet.   Just the questions are good and necessary in this time.    I'll   wait   until it all  answers its Self.    and i smiled….on the label of that Essence of Crepe Myrtle i impulsively got….the first benefit listed  is   Spiritual Patience.   Which i read,  and wondered about….what did she mean,  ?  Maybe this is part of it.   

 

 

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16 responses to “what on Earth?”

  1. jude Avatar
    jude

    Maybe 20 years, it was like this, while I worked full time, commuted 3 hours a day, and raised my son…all the while, a mountain of scraps were rescued…

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  2. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    A whole world is in your spilled out cloths, the threads, such life affirming colors, just looking at them on the screen, fills me with happiness and it is enough…
    “Spiritual patience”…to me, as it relates to cloth, is what I call cloth contemplation:
    When I first started learning about naturally dyeing cloth in 2010, I had no thought to doing anything more than finding what colors and markings would develop. After a time, the dyed cloths started to accumulate so I would place them in my dresser drawer, sorted by color, not even considering putting them in a basket and having them out where I could see them until the dresser drawer got full. It was then that it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, I could put together some cloths with stitch…
    I asked you to show me Jude’s invisible baste, the glue stitch, (I was living in TN at the time). You sent me a stitch sample, on softly dyed green cloth no less,my favorite color, possibly hoping that it would motivate me to begin to stitch. This resulted in my slowly beginning to stitch my landscape collages.
    These many years later, I do make a few stitched cloths but not nearly the volume as in previous years. I now have a lovely reed basket on my dresser filled with all of my dyed cloth stash, not that much because even that has curtailed somewhat but I always try to dye cloth every month, not the big, long pieces but smaller ones.
    On the walls in our home, I have hung the dyed and stitched cloth pieces that speak to me the most strongly of stories of this place I live in, New Mexico. A smaller dyed patched cloth lies flat on the coffee table, with a small pot made by an artist from Jemez Pueblo. Next to the pot is a clay bowl that you gave me and it holds a dried red Chile pepper from a long ago ristra, a smaller dried red Chile pepper that I grew, and a small multi-colored Native American corn that I also grew. By my reading chair on a table with books, and a reading light, is a little cloth booklet that I made because I wanted to have a bound collection of some of the dyed markings that I so love. Used to keep the cloth booklet on my night stand so I could end the day by “reading” it before going to sleep. Now it is out in the living room so that others can “read” it.
    It is enough to have these cloths around me and it is also enough to now and then, dump my reed basket and watch the flurry of dyed cloths fall all over. Touching and picking up each one is such a gift. This gift simply allows me to accept the quiet joy in knowing that the land communicated and connected with me to bring forth story.

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  3. Peggy McG Avatar
    Peggy McG

    I understand… so beautyfull this image of your cloth.. multiply by 13.. makes me imagine just the possibilities.. needs no more.. just imagine. I carry with me a shoebox of my favorite cloth and leave 4 totes full at my daughters to visit it!

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  4. CatherinE Avatar
    CatherinE

    This post … brought tears to my eyes.

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  5. Deb G Avatar
    Deb G

    I think sometimes it has to be enough and sometimes we choose what is enough. I was holding a piece of cloth a couple days ago that I had dyed thinking, I don’t need to do anything with this, just keep it. It’s silk and feel so good. I know that I love the possibilities just as much as the making, maybe more.

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  6. Irene Avatar
    Irene

    Oh, that orange print….luscious.

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  7. Margery Avatar
    Margery

    Yes, it is enough to simply sit & love & appreciate the beauty. Years ago I read Sabbath by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel who said (if I remember correctly) that the Sabbath was a time not to Do but to Be — to appreciate things just as they are rather than trying to change or “fix” them. Such a beautiful understanding of something we all need. I think he said that “the Sabbath is a temple in Time.” Temple — the word that has captured your attention lately. You are practicing Sabbath time.

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  8. Jacqui Avatar
    Jacqui

    “knowing that the land communicated and connected with me to bring forth story” What a powerful thing to say. Thank You.

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  9. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    our Lives.
    ….our Lives.

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  10. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    of All of Us….you have truly. Truly. merged with
    the dance of cloth and plant. I so, more and more honor that, Marti. and i am so. so. Glad.

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  11. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    a shoebox. yes. this feels very good. a shoebox. for the journey.

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  12. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    we are alike

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    it’s so wonder FULL to become more and more aware of, yes? All these things, to become intimate with them….that word…intimate

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  14. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    isn’t it????????????????????
    i was not an Orange person that long ago…but something
    has happened….
    and this particular cloth….it was a gift…don’t know how to find mere…so i never could use it….

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  15. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    thank you so much for this…so so much. you are so good to take me places where i need to be but cannot find on my own…
    i love this so much…”the Sabbath is a temple in Time”
    a temple in time….
    Sabbath
    devotion, that, again. devotion.

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  16. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    ‘Rich’ in cloth. xo

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