Over the holidays, I did something that Bob and I used to do before the time pressures of kids and careers. I made a number of Christmas gifts. This year, I reclaimed the craft of knitting.
Before I became a professional weaver, I used to do a lot of knitting. I’ve knitted sweaters, throws, scarves, and even a hat or two from my own handspun. Five or six years ago, while at a weaver’s conference where I was promoting my book, I purchased some angora yarn to knit a sweater for myself. I made it halfway through. Demands of family, business and writing pulled me away.
But this fall, while visiting the grandson, I went to visit a yarn shop with my aunt who had developed an interest in knitting over the last year. Seeing women sitting on couches and chairs, knitting and chatting away, as well as the variety of projects hanging from hooks near appropriate yarns, made my fingers itch. So I decided to tackle a couple of projects for Christmas.
On the way home from Virginia, I cast on stitches for the first project, a scarf for a sister, and then knitted row after row as mile after mile slipped by.
The memory of how to hold the yarn and needles as well as the rhythmic motion of hands and needles rose quickly to the surface, and it was as if I had never stopped knitting. I loved having a reason, an excuse, to be doing something that was relaxing, soothing, and satisfying.
And it reminded me…
How easy it is to get caught up in creating for others, in being responsible and hard-working and productive, and in bringing in the income, that we forget to do things for the sheer pleasure of it.
I realized this is one of the primary reasons I bake—because it gives me pleasure. In fact, often, when I go to the kitchen to bake (not cook), to make brownies or scones or some other tasty treat, it is because I need the rhythm of measuring and mixing, the soothing smells that make my brain happy, and the satisfaction of knowing that what I’ve baked will be enjoyed by others as well as myself. I’ll bake for the sheer pleasure of it.
What about you?
What do you do for the sheer creative pleasure? For the memories and rhythms, for the sensual qualities that satisfy mind and body and spirit?
Do you do it often enough?
If we let ourselves do those creative pleasures more often, would we be less stressed? Would we eat less, watch less TV, or even feel less depressed?
Whether it is playing piano, doing a collage, stringing beads, coiling a basket, or some other handcraft, what have you dropped from your life in pursuit of other goals that could actually nurture and nourish your creative well?
How can you bring it back, even in small easy ways? Because even in these small ways, we keep the channels open to our Muses…
And that makes the Muses very happy…
And you, too.