Today, on the anniversary of my family’s worst day…

He was sitting at his desk (after a vigorous workout; yes, he was that good) on this morning four years ago. Pen in hand, having just scribed his “daily five” gratitudes (yes, he was that awesome) to his journal, he collapsed. I was able to restart his beautiful heart, but it was too late. This was on the page:

1. I have the freedom to choose my thoughts.
2. That I can dare to choose better thoughts.
3. I can create my own world.
4. The beauty of our children.
5. The Joy of Bemus (our puppy) when he greets us in the morning.

It happens to us all. Earthquakes rage, tsunamis hit, or a big wind blows us down – all of us. And there are those that survive, with days and days of grief ahead, to rise up and put the pieces back together.

To my dear friends and this wonder-full world, may God bless us all for doing our best.

This blog is all about pattern. I’ve used the word consistently since design school but I’ve cherished the concept so much longer. An only child, I often escaped to my own inner world of imagination and followed it to creative pursuits. Usually, I would be inclined to find friends but when that was not an option (like when my father parked the family camper in the Michigan wilderness to indulge his own pursuit of Coho salmon, or when living on an isolated farm in rural Kentucky), I would play games with pattern. I’m not sure when I became aware that EVERYTHING is pattern but…

It’s no coincidence that I went on to study design and engineering (math is the best pattern game of all!), or that quilting and teaching became my most passionate pursuits. There are always patterns to ponder.

Pattern concepts like: symmetry (glide, mirror, rotational, etc.), fractals, tessellations, etc. all sound haughty and high-brow but when applied to life can be an endless source of fascination.

Many times in my recent history, these very applications have kept me from toppling into darkness. And just as the sewing needle punches into the fabric in a rhythmic stitch – up and down, powered by machine or hand and giving energy to movement, life is like that too. Ups and downs, we make trails that can meander or be straight. It’s those stitches, or the firmly planted steps along our journey, that hold it everything together in a beautiful layered pattern.
 

So I picked up the scrapbook project from a workshop I led last year. The women there were all new to the process and thing that kept coming up for everyone was fear of imperfect gluing. There were so many comments of worry and regret that I had to start laughing. I pointed out to these beautiful and extremely intelligent young women that they were being silly and that this was supposed to be fun, not a performance contest.

Really!

Worrying over scraps of cut paper placed on a page with glue? Most of them were Biostatistics PhD students with way more worldly knowledge than I ever had at their age. But they were really stressing. I gave them gentle instructions about techniques and visual design.

Consider the whole page.
Use large and small elements of shapes and color.
Layer on the foundation paper.
Keep your themes simple.
Finish the piece.

And yet, here they were, second guessing and critiquing their works-in-progress, exactly the type of judgment that is the demise of all creative processes. We all do it, some more than others, but we all do it. What is the answer to this constant inner critiquing? I don’t know. but everything changes and nothing is perfect except imperfection. And that is our design.

So,
Consider your wholeness.
Fill yourself with positive messages; keep some openness.
Build on your foundation.
Keep YOU simple and moderate.
Finish your tasks – I’m-perfectly.