knitting teaches me patience
My life is full of wondering and seeking right now. On many of the "big life" fronts: work, family, identity. I am fully engaged and engrossed, processing hard.
So last night I wrote this in my journal: "it was knitting that taught me [how much work goes into something of merit]. You simply cannot knit something faster than you can knit it. It refuses to grow by will alone. There are no tricks for making it grow faster than a stitch at a time. You can become a better knitter (only through the process of knitting many individual stitches), and you can become a faster knitter (only through the process of knitting many individual stitches). It is the 1st law: everything takes as long as it takes. There are no true shortcuts.
The main learning this morning that follows the learning I wrote of is this: Oh, I have sometimes considered it a failure when I couldn't grow something by will alone. Or rather, when I'd put a bunch of hard work into something--but perhaps not yet enough--I considered the project failed if will and want couldn't bring the finish line a wee bit closer to me. And then I doubted that my will was strong enough to sustain a longer-term effort.
In knitting, will does nothing without the stitches. It is there to provide the sheer grit and stubbornness to keep making the number of stitches (or ends woven in!) required to create an FO.
Silly rabbit.
This is partly an ode to friend A, whose bridemaking we embark on today. She is my true-life example of someone who sets her sights on the goal, and then works her guts out. For as long as it takes. And today we celebrate not only her marrying, but a whole host of dreams that are coming true for her at the same time she's marrying. These dreams are coming true after years of laboring in the desert, after disappointments and thwarted effort, a long haul over which I often thought, "I'd have given that up by now." Not her.
My wish for her today, sent out into blogland, is that more of us can be like her: fearless, driven hard by her dreams, taking rest when needed but always picking up her pack again and going on toward her vision of the future.
So last night I wrote this in my journal: "it was knitting that taught me [how much work goes into something of merit]. You simply cannot knit something faster than you can knit it. It refuses to grow by will alone. There are no tricks for making it grow faster than a stitch at a time. You can become a better knitter (only through the process of knitting many individual stitches), and you can become a faster knitter (only through the process of knitting many individual stitches). It is the 1st law: everything takes as long as it takes. There are no true shortcuts.
The main learning this morning that follows the learning I wrote of is this: Oh, I have sometimes considered it a failure when I couldn't grow something by will alone. Or rather, when I'd put a bunch of hard work into something--but perhaps not yet enough--I considered the project failed if will and want couldn't bring the finish line a wee bit closer to me. And then I doubted that my will was strong enough to sustain a longer-term effort.
In knitting, will does nothing without the stitches. It is there to provide the sheer grit and stubbornness to keep making the number of stitches (or ends woven in!) required to create an FO.
Silly rabbit.
This is partly an ode to friend A, whose bridemaking we embark on today. She is my true-life example of someone who sets her sights on the goal, and then works her guts out. For as long as it takes. And today we celebrate not only her marrying, but a whole host of dreams that are coming true for her at the same time she's marrying. These dreams are coming true after years of laboring in the desert, after disappointments and thwarted effort, a long haul over which I often thought, "I'd have given that up by now." Not her.
My wish for her today, sent out into blogland, is that more of us can be like her: fearless, driven hard by her dreams, taking rest when needed but always picking up her pack again and going on toward her vision of the future.
posted by nann at 6:35 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home