Advent is on our horizon and I’m in the bonus room/office/library looking at the Advent books we’ve accumulated over our the years and choosing one for our pre-dinner conversation. We’re going into Liturgical Cycle B for the Sunday readings and Year II for the daily readings. And we’ve settled on the recently released from Word on Fire.
Flip the Script
Practicing machine quilting is something I’m good at, and one day hope to achieve that “master quilter” level of quilting. In a recent presentation on color I shared with the quilter interviewing me that while writing Color, Thread & Free-Motion Quilting I had a moment when, looking at the paintings of Sean Scully, I realized I know nothing about color. This moment is etched in memory as one of those moments wherein the level of defeat washed over me, the thoughts rushing through, “what were they (the publishers) thinking when asking me to write this book?” “how am I ever going to finish this” “if I run away right now…” And then I stopped and thought, “wait a moment here! I know what I do. I can dig into the work and teach that.” I can assure you that, and another moment in the museum were difficult moments. These moment though allowed me to finish the work of the book, just in time.
As a free-motion quilter I’ve done a lot of free-motion quilting “what if” thinking. What if I do this? What if I try that? What if I pair this needle and thread together? What if this goes wrong? What if my hands wobble? What if? What if I go in a direction that is all my own? What if no one likes my quilts? Some of these questions I’ve answered, and yet they still remain questions. There are new or new-to-me threads to try, and new-to-me techniques to try. Further this kind of what if thinking has the potential to lead to something good, in this case better quilting, writing a book, ideas floating through my head.
Giving Thanks
Giving Thanks is an act of flipping our internal script. One of the things I hope to do is work on my internal thinking process and begin giving thanks to God when my brain wants to complain, grouse, or have that conversation where in I’m either “standing up for myself” or “completely right” about whatever it is I’m thinking about. While having a conversation yesterday with some friends here locally about making mistakes and what we would do if there was a possibility of a “do-over”. We’d make different mistakes and we have no insight into the outcome of those mistakes, so learning, praying, reading, talking and doing our best for others and for our selves, asking forgiveness and offering correction where necessary is what we can do. Loving people is the best we can do.
Twenty-twenty has offered so many opportunities to think, reflect and grow, opportunities I’ve squandered because in some way I don’t *feel* worthy of that growth. And so I give thanks for each of you who read this and TerifiCreations. I pray for you all. I pray that as 2020 offers us the opportunity to Flip the Script, to change our relationships, to delve more into prayer. I want to find opportunities to say yes to God. I want to write more and pray more.
Happy Giving Thanks Day,
Teri
A Quilter's Heart 