Now, some of my dear friends will probably want to whap me upside the head however, I’m going to ask you to hang with me here for a moment. Because I’m not so much a bad student as I’ve discovered a few things in the last few weeks that have me thinking about how I learn and how that effects how I do things.
A dear friend loves being organized and has found systems that work. It’s taken a lot of reading and discovering for her and it’s been fun to watch because the results. They have made a huge difference in so many area’s for her.
over the last few weeks I’ve really felt like I’m struggling with something. So yes, I’m admitting I’m struggling with something. What’s frustrating is that I Feel like I shouldn’t be struggling with this. And yet, here I am struggling. The reality is that there is a component of this struggle that shouldn’t be happening. Yet it is. I’m owning that. (I’m being deliberate about not sharing what it is because the what doesn’t matter.)
Over the last few days there have been some great reminders:
1) Slow down
2) look at the directions (or write them out)
3) make reminders for yourself
4) acknowledge your feelings but don’t be owned by them
5) find ways of working that get you through the process
6) ask questions
7) be patient but keep working towards the goal
8) listen carefully and ask the questions again
Being told to ask questions is fine, however when you’re not sure of what question to ask. The relationship is student/teacher and in that there is a both/and situation. Let’s hearken back to my early days learning algebra. It took a long time for me to “get” algebra. It’s a whole other way of communicating and in that there are rules and broken rules. We get the foundation for learning algebra in our math classes leading up to algebra. It was an eye opening day in my mid 20’s when an 8th grade teacher wrote a simple math problem on the board 1 + the box = 3. I learned that we’d been doing algebra all along however we just didn’t know it.
Learning machine quilting is the same way. We’re learning a whole new language. Learning how to understand machinery and how all of the different components and how they work together. I teach the mechanics: needle and thread pairing; machine tension, dropping feed dogs, not dropping feed dogs, thread weight and I teach this because once I understood the mechanics I could then break every rule I wanted to achieve the look of quilting I wanted. In my world there is Nothing Magical about what I do.
Like organizing, algebra and machine quilting technique our faith journey’s are as unique, fraught, beautiful, amazing and individual as we all are. They are a gift waiting to be opened and used and loved and appreciated. Just add life and off we go! Our faith life isn’t about believing and off we go, it’s about believing, learning, growing, problem solving and figuring out how to better work with other.
God bless!
Teri
A Quilter's Heart 