Building / Growing

I had a dream about a quilt the other night (yes, quilts are on my mind 24 hours a day!) The pattern was simple and very attractive to me; but even in my dream, my brain was sifting and analyzing to figure it out, to define a deeper meaning, a logical reason why it should be this way and no other (sad but true...this is the way my brain works—problem-solving and pattern seeking even while I'm sleeping—no wonder I'm tired when I wake up!)

When I tumbled out of bed, I went straight to my computer and worked through some tangible responses to my initial vision (depicted above) to define the elements that had meaning for me, extracting the two interpretations shown below.

The arrangement of evenly spaced horizontal rectangles piled one upon the other, creates a solid brick wall. This image speaks to me of stability: warmth and shelter that will endure and withstand the storms and vagaries of time; it represents the things we understand very well and know how to make for ourselves.

But my original vision was in brighter, softer shades which spoke to me of nature, alive and growing... so I altered the shapes in this second version to be vertical, varied and verdant (how's that for alliteration?) This image is all about the mystery of life that sprouts without our help and renews itself despite our misguided or unintentional efforts to suppress it; it speaks of freshness, individuality, and the breeze of inspiration blowing through us.

In the end, I like all three designs... but what sense did my analytical mind make of my dream? It told me that all things are made of basic building blocks, but how we choose to arrange them in our imagination has the power to determine what we perceive. 

Setting Priorities

A new quilt design inspired by the story below...

I don't know where the story originated, but this is a paraphrase of how I heard it:

A professor stood before his class with a large glass container and an assortment of materials before him. He carefully placed a number of large rocks in the container until they reached the top and then held it up for his students to observe.

"Is this container full?" he asked.

"Of course!" replied one of the students.

"Hmmm... interesting" he replied.

He then proceeded to add a number of small pebbles which tumbled down into the spaces between the big rocks.

"Now is the container full?" he asked again.

"Yes?" replied another student, more hesitantly this time.

"Really?" said the professor. "Let's see..."

The professor scooped a few shovelfuls of sand from a bucket on his desk and dumped them over the pebbles and rocks. As they trickled down into the smaller spaces, the professor asked,

"How about now?"

This time no-one would answer, so the professor simply took his glass of water and slowly poured it into the container.

"Life is like this," he said. "If we fill the container with small things, the big things will never fit... we need to add the big things first and the small things will always find a way to fit in around them."

So endeth the lesson...

Leave None Behind

Life is a balancing act; there are always more things to do than time to do them. I struggle with this every moment of every day: I want to wake up bright-eyed in the morning, bake fresh bread, exercise, eat a proper breakfast, write this blog, work a fulfilling day as a graphic designer, make a hearty supper, finish projects, do laundry, knit, sew and paint, clean my house, go to the cottage, the museum, the theatre, the library, do my grocery shopping, renovate the house, maintain the garden, go for walks and bike rides, relax and meditate, listen to and make music, make and keep appointments with my hairdresser, my dentist, my doctor, spend time with family and friends, answer emails, send birthday and Christmas cards, play with the cat and get ten hours of sleep per night... sigh... you know what I'm talking about.

How do we decide what is important in any given moment? How do we keep from getting discouraged or from getting buried under the expectations we place on ourselves?

My strategies have become two-fold. I try to follow the principles of putting the big rocks in the container first (if you don't know that story, I'll share that one in another post).

My second strategy, for the last several years now, is based on a board game given to us by a friend. The game is called "Ingenious" and I like it for several reasons:

I sometimes win (which is a pleasant change from many other board games).

I get to play with patterns and fields of colour (as a quilter and designer, this appeals to me).

I like the surprising philosophy it requires to win.

The game requires you to keep all the colours moving forward. You don't win by reaching the end line first with one of your pegs; you win by not leaving any behind.