I don’t know if I’m the only one ………….. or if everyone has this THING …………. I have always “done” something. It was embroidery when I was little ……………. Grandma Nannie taught me to do that. She had fun teaching me to use my right hand instead of my left. Now I can’t sew with a needle in my dominant hand!

I loved paper dolls and used to spend hours playing with them. I would walk to Robeson’s (12 blocks away!) when I was 11. I somehow learned that the sewing department would get new pattern books every few months. I would go to the store and ask if I could have an old catalog. I’d come home and cut out the pictures and make my own dolls! I did enjoy that …………….

In junior high school, we had art classes …………… we were allowed to do independent study with the art teacher, Mrs. Pond. I will never forget her. She taught me how to do batik. I made this beautiful green and blue fabric. I then took it home and made a “romper” out of it. I wore that romper to death!

In my teens and twenties, I started painting. My father took me to his shop on campus and made me an easel. He also brought home a bunch of old canvas that was being thrown out. I copied greeting cards. I am surprised that Mom let me do that in the house. I remember the smell of turpentine in my room. I wouldn’t dare do that now.

And then, years after marriage and a child and several cross-state moves ……………. I found quilting. Oh my. I love knitting and I love drawing and watercolors ………….. but I adore quilting. I taught myself to dye fabric back in the early 80s. I needed fabric colors that I couldn’t find.

The making, the playing, the colors, the dabbling in art …………….. all come from a place where I can be me, where I don’t think, where I rest and just float. If I don’t get to that place at least once a week – I lose my center, I’m not in the moment, I’m stuck in my old habit mind ……….. so even though creating something is the point ………….. it is not why I do it. I do it so I can be whole, still, and peaceful.

I’m not sure if this need to be centered is experienced by everyone. I see that my husband needs to do that. He collects stamps …………… and I see when he’s working on his collection, he’s happy and peaceful and not bothered by the chaos in our world.

So today, as yesterday and the day before ………….. I’m off to that place of a thousand possibilities!