Creating with Sticks

Creating with Sticks 

            We are always creating the world around us. Starting in the morning with the first cup of coffee or tea to get one’s self going before facing the day.  I am a laggard in this process.  Oh, I start off well with great ideas of doing this or that, working on such and such but somehow in the very act of living my day to day I get lost.  Weekends seem to be the best time for me as I get worn down from my work week and somehow my little brain has a tendency to shut down once I get home. 

            I remember the time that both my husband and I came home, threw off our coats and shoes and headed for the couch.  I spooned behind him with my back snug against the cushions of our brown plaid couch. We slept. When we woke up, we had been joined by our big black cat Puck who had found that his mother snuggled behind his father made a perfect little niche for sleeping in so he had positioned himself in the comfort of our warm bodies.

            There was no great creativity going on that night as we stumbled from the couch into the kitchen with bleary eyes and minds that were not functioning on all burners. My husband opened a cupboard door, pulled out a can of baked beans.  We opened them up, ate them cold and then after brushing our teeth crawled into bed. 

            I have started a new project with the help of my mom-in-law.  I have decided to learn how to knit the lovely scarf pattern that she uses so much for most of my winter scarves.  I have an idea to knit a scarf or two for some of my dear friends for the season.  If you are one of them reading this blog, don’t get your heart set on a new scarf quite yet.  I have ripped it out three times so far.  As my mom-in-law said to me. ”Oh, you don’t have time for that.” I am still hopeful to at least get my scarf completed before the month is out.  We will see.

            As always, when working on an idea for a blog, I try and take my camera everywhere I go just in case I find an opportunity for a quick picture that might work.  It saves me having regrets later as I mourned a lost moment because my camera was left sitting on the table or on the counter at home.  When we went to eat at our favorite spot, the restaurant Café Mundo, I found that I was indeed happy that the camera was with me.  Sitting at a table next to us was a group of five women who were busy with their various projects, knitting, stitching in their laps.  I have long gotten past being shy about asking for things, it can happen but unless you ask? Well, I explained to the women that I write a blog and would like to take a picture.  I told them that I don’t do faces because I like to keep things private but that I would like to take a picture of the table for an idea that I was working on. Thankfully, they consented and I worked on a few shots.

            One of the women shared that they had been sitting working at another table one day and a man came up and commented that it was surprising to see them not sitting and texting as most people seem to do now days.  I agree with him.  I am with an age group that when you are with someone, you are with someone. You look at them, you listen to them and when you have an idea or comment you share with them.  You might think of that as creativity. I do. Whenever I open my mouth to comment, share or voice something that is going on in my mind, I have created a moment that can never be changed, never taken back but probably with the space of time passing, I will forget the details, the nuances, and the great attraction that held my mind at the time.

            I hope to remember so that I can draw a more crooked line, color outside the edge of a drawing, and really taste the food that I am eating which is passing into  a new stage of creation in my body.  But now I can only hope that somehow creating with sticks will get me a nice warm scarf before the cold winds come.