Seth Godin is incredibly insightful.
In this particular blog Seth shares a Dave Ramsey call where the caller says, “you have a trust brand”. Merriam-Webster defines trust here. Essentially, it’s the ability to rely on someone. To know, deep down, that the person will do what they say they will. Trust must be at once accepted, given and earned. Trust and Faith are linked both with a certain fragility. Trust between individuals can be easily rocked by an action, inaction, look, word. Trust is built over time as the individual works toward providing consistency and growth at the same time. There are different types of trust: parental, familial, spousal, friend, personal and corporate both small and large. I’m sure there are more but these are the types that flitted through my brain as I write.
Faith is different and embodies a depth of trust that goes beyond what can be seen and experienced in our physical world. Faith can be rocked when it’s linked to individuals who through action or inaction deeply wound or are wounded. Ann Graham Lotz was a guest on The Busted Halo Show with Fr. Dave Dwyer last night (9/12). Ann shares one of the Biblical stories that caught her off-guard (my words) as she wrote this book: the story of Hagar. The story goes on for several chapters in Genesis detailing the relationship, a very broken relationship of a family torn by mistrust and a lack of Faith. This is as common now as it was then. I found the conversation very profound as it relates to many experiences over the last 10 years and in ways I just could not imagine. This helped put some things – which due to their nature I can not share – in perspective, realizing that there is more to the situation than I ever imagined. I can say this is one experience where forgiveness must be exercised in a deep and profound way and this, for my part, needs to start now.
I know there are situations where I’ve done very hard work to develop and build trust only to have it come crashing down around my ankles. And now I see there may be more to these situations than I know. So here’s where practicing patience, trust and faith come into action.
One of the quilterly lessons of the last year has been trust. And until last night I’m not sure that I would have been able to articulate that in any intelligent way. Jesus asked Simon Peter to “put out into the deep” to go fishing one more time after they’d been fishing all night long. I can see Peter and the rest of the crew being tired, wanting a hot cup of coffee and a good breakfast before getting on with the rest of the day…whatever it held and here Jesus is asking Peter to go fishing one more time. And in answer to the call to trust (and there literally has been a call to trust and “put out into the deep”) I put my class descriptions back on my blog. You can read them here.
When ever we make a quilt, read a blog with or without a tutorial, write a class description, encourage a quilter, support your local quilt shop (or any independent brick and mortar shop) you are/we take a risk that our trust might be misplaced. That does not change the fact that trusting is a good and essential component to quilt making. There are a lot of really good authors and teachers out there, there are some not so good ones. One of the things I recognize is that (this is a moment of brutal honesty here) I’m not the right teacher for everyone. I’m okay with that. I do know one thing though – even when I’m not at my best I have something to learn and something to teach, something to do and somewhere to be.
It’s also important to trust your own judgement when it comes to the overall look of your quilts. Ultimately you’re the only opinion that matters – whether you quilt for family, friends, as work or competition. When you need help with a technique there are loads of tutorials, teachers, classes, books and quilters who are willing to help. I’m going to add that I think generosity helps build that level of trust that is necessary in the quilt making community. And finally this does relate back to Adam & Eve…They needed to trust one another deeply and profoundly and they each contributed to the mistrust…and needed that remedial education.
Happy Quilting!
Teri
A Quilter's Heart 