Bits and Pieces

Over the past few days I have been dealing with lots of loose ends - all the little bits and pieces that, when woven together make up the fabric of life. The textile of my life is still a bit stained, tattered and frayed, even though I've been busy for the past year or so trying to reweave it into something new and beautiful. I suppose that it is a process that never ends - the labor is its own reward. We choose to weave people, places and things into our life's tapestry - or not - and these choices become the features, the patterns, the textures, the idiosyncrasies and occasionally the defects we see when we pull the cloth from the loom to evaluate our progress.

For example, a friend and mentor of mine suggested that when we sleep with someone the threads of their life and our life are forever woven together. A record of the event is created like the knots in the colored llama or alpaca wool of Incan quipus. As much as we would sometimes like to unmake or undo certain events in our pasts, the lingering evidence is preserved even if only as a small wrinkle, just as paper once crumpled can never be made truly flat again.

The choices and selections we make as weavers are most often made from a pallet of available materials. The patterns and style with which we approach and use these threads are the actions we choose to take in life - or not. Sometimes it is not so much the actions themselves, but the way that we carry ourselves through the completion of these actions that determines the quality of the woven product.

This week I have been handling the shuttles that hold the "divorce", "tax-return", "career-change" and "Zach's care" threads. I have been passing them from hand to hand, back and forth through the warp strings, tamping them tight with the batten, hoping that they don't tangle and trying to complete each action in the best way possible. I've had some mixed results. It is too soon yet to stretch the cloth out and evaluate exactly how I've done, but hopefully there will not be too much that needs to be reworked.