Ya take the good, ya take the bad

You You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have The Facts of Life, the Facts of Life. There’s a time you got to go and show You’re growin’ now you know about The Facts of Life, the Facts of Life. When the world never seems to be livin up to your dreams And suddenly you’re finding out the Facts of Life are all about you, you. It takes a lot to get ’em right When you’re learning the Facts of Life. Learning the Facts of Life Learning the Facts of Life.Found on this website.

This morning I woke up with the theme song to “The Facts of Life” running through my mind. “The Facts of Life” trivia moment – I do not remember there being 3 different versions of the theme song, there were.

As I reflect/ponder on a number of things I can understand why this is would be the song. There are a number of things happening both in the quilting community (smaller) and in life (broader) over which I have no control. Things that are challenging at best to deal with. Things I want to help resolve but feel in some way powerless to do anything about because I’m not the one in charge. But I want to help make that difference because I see the potential. I find myself down right b*tchy about one situation and I don’t like it because I KNOW it has an effect in ways that I can and can’t control. I’m the one that needs to change here – change how I’m dealing with it. In one way I’m doing my best, in another way I’m doing pretty awful.

Just because I feel powerless doesn’t mean I am.

It’s all part of life. Even the negative comments people make. I can get upset about them, which I do sometimes; or I can chalk it up to their opinion, which sometimes I do; I can also chalk it up to broken people needing to feel important, like what they do matters in the greater world, which it does.
I don’t have a choice, I have to take the good and the bad. I can learn how to deal with it better though. I can and must learn to have compassion on those who are making those negative comments about whatever in the world in general, in the quilting world in particular. I can learn to view with the eyes of compassion those who are making negative comments. I can see them for the broken people they are. Instead of feeling attacked (which may be true) and reacting with vehemence I can pause (embracing my word of the year) and think about 1) whether it’s important to respond to the comment; 2) whether asking questions would be important – sussing out why the person feels the way they do; 3) giving myself space to respond with charity (love, kindness, compassion).
This puts me in a less defensive position. It actually puts me in a less offensive position as well. I can stop feeling threatened – which is what leads to that defensive posture. I can take action, have uncomfortable conversations.

No matter how a quilt is made: by hand or machine or a combination; whether it is to bring comfort, joy, deep thought; made with cotton, polyester, bamboo, linen, ripstop nylon or whatever as long as it has a top, middle and back it is a quilt.

Happy Quilting!

Teri