Celebrating summer

ZEITGEIST'S Sixth Poetry Competition
Asked contestants to write on the theme of
“CELEBRATION”

First Prize Winner-My daughter

Celebrating Summer
You're alone, completely isolated yet surrounded by trees, tall, silent giants watching you, companionably. You whisper your secret wishes and they whisper back, in company with the wind and the softly dying crickets. There is something holding you close, but who knows what it is, other than your own thoughts, insecurities and worries that you fight, holding together every fiber of your being.

A summers day years ago, you sat here, skinny legs kicking at the treetops and hair flowing back behind you as you laughed. Hot tarmac burning under dirty, bare feet and the air of summer scent. Lipstick glued on from cherry flavored Popsicle and scabs that were once only signatures of the neighborhood mosquitoes but were now stiff and brittle form nails that persisted in scratching leaving only blood and skin behind. Where had youth left you as it hurried by?

You are at peace, even when the sky opens and begins to cry, beating the floor with angry bullets seeking reprise, matching the pounding of your own pulse and steady heartbeat. You remain in your place to comfort the tears being shed by allowing each drop to engulf you. Steam rises from the hot floor beneath your toes and as the stream of rain hardens you lean back and breathe. Breathe in the air of summer. And in this moment you become at peace with the weeping, whispering world.

My Sewing room

One of the deals I made with my cute guy when we were making preparations for moving to Moscow was that I would be allowed to bring as much of my fabric stash as I wanted. And he would not moan about what that did to our weight allowance. And that I would be given a room or area to sew in and he would be fully supportive of that. He has kept completely to our bargain. And when on a few occasions I have moved a sewing project onto the dining room table and taken over that room with a big quilt project. He has never complained or commented on the mess. How fortunate I am. I asked him to make the deal because I know I can be happy anywhere if I can de-stress myself by sewing. Sewing gives me “object Permanence” which I need for good mental health.

Let me explain what “Object Permanence” is and why it is important to me.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched. Jean Piaget argued that object permanence is one of an infant's most important accomplishments, as without this concept, objects would have no separate, permanent existence. In Piaget's Theory of cognitive development infants develop this understanding by the end of the "sensorimotor stage", which lasts from birth to about 2 years of age.[1] Piaget thought that an infant's perception and understanding of the world depended on their motor development, which was required for the infant to link visual, tactile and motor representations of objects. According to this view, it is through touching and handling objects that infants develop object permanence.[2]

I think mother's need another type of Object permanence. Objects that continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched. So many of the things a mother fills her time with gets undone immediately. Like picking up the toy off the floor that your under 2 year old has just thrown off the high chair tray because he is trying to development his Object Permanence. :-)

Another example, I may spend 3 hours fixing a delicious meal and setting a beautiful table. Unless my living-in-china-daughter is home or we have guests; no one will make a positive comment about the food or the setting. In usually less than 30 minutes the evidence of that 3 hours of effort is gone except for dirty dishes that have to be washed and put away. No object permanence. Except the knowledge that I have fed my family well. But if in contrast I spend 3 hours patching beautiful cloth together, or altering some clothing no one "un-does" my work. It becomes Object permanence.

Sewing brings me joy because not only does it create Object permanence but it is a creative problem solving endeavor that tests my patience and builds character.

Recently I began mentally preparing for the upcoming pack out. And thinking about my future sewing room in my next house. And to remember the happy hours I've spent in my little 6X6 foot space I took some photos and practiced my budding skill of creating panoramic photos.

10*20*30 minutes to sew.

10*20*30 Minutes to Sew is the title of a Book I own and love by Nancy Zieman. In it she gives lots of time saving ideas sent to her by viewers of her television show. She also teaches that you can organize your sewing projects and then when you have only 10 minutes to sew you can! And in a few days of ten minutes each you will have a project completed. Once I stopped thinking that I needed to have a whole day free to get a big project started or completed I began sewing more frequently and more happily.

Last week I did some updating of my wardrobe by creating two spring skirts. They ended requiring a lot more patience then I ever imagined but turned out reasonably well. The first one was created from a treasured remnant saved since high school.

When I was a junior the chorus dress we wore was made from the softest cotton jersey I had ever felt. Although the dress wasn't very flattering to many of us, wearing it was a pleasure to my skin. Later when I was married I turned the high school chorus dress into a two piece maternity set. This week while going through my fabric stash I found the left over fabric and the well worn “maternity” skirt. I cut the front of my new skirt and the “kick out” panels from the fabric remnant and the back of the skirt from the least stained and worn part of the original dress-now-skirt. What tried my patience about this project is that I was creating the triangle inserts without a pattern. And the sewing in of the triangles turned out to be very fiddly and frustrating.

The next skirt was created from a skirt I purchased last fall in England. I purchased the skirt because I loved the color, it was like nothing I owned and the price was fantastic. 

But I didn't really love all the velvet on the skirt so thought I'd remove the top two squares of velvet... unfortunately once I'd cut off the velvet I realized I really did not like that look.  unfortunately I did not think to take a photo of the original skirt. so photo shows the cut out panel of the squares that I removed the velvet from, the original waistband and one of the side pieces that I cut off the skirt.)

So... I sewed... and corrected my error... the skirt is now shorter.. and reversible and a trimmer more flattering shape for me.