Ten Uses For The Sewing Kit

As I recounted the airplane dream to you, I realized that while sitting in the pilot seat of a 747, I was looking for help. While searching for help, the sewing basket, 'from above,' fell into my lap.

Thus, I am revisiting this dream. Obviously, the sewing basket is the symbolic 'help.'

If you can believe this, when I was a teenager, I loved to embroider. I had the stretching hoop, and many patterns. I would spend hours stitching in pictures of birds, flowers, and various animals. Pillowcases and towels. I probably would be a good tattoo artist. I ended my career with embroidery by placing designs on my pant legs, and sewing them in. After all, it was the '60's and I wanted to be a hippie. It was definitely as close as I would get to being a hippie.

I entered teaching at a very young age. 19. I started counseling at a very young age. 22. I suppose this was an evolutionary progression for my sewing skills. The social and spiritual fabric of our country was ripped to shreds. Believe me, this state was noticed by all. Even I knew it, safe in the suburbs. On the large analysis, depressingly few had a needle and thread big enough, strong enough, or long enough to tackle that reality. As a nation, we seemed to wander about in the 70's clothed in tattered rags, trying to convince ourselves that we were adequately dressed to function in public. We weren't. What we did was graciously avert our eyes, so not to call attention to ourselves and each other. Broken and beaten, ripped apart by the battles, changes, and loss of definition of family, community, nation. No one wanted to cause anymore shame or self-hate, fear or reprisal, hatred or grief. We looked away from each other. We pulled into our rags, and were glad to have them during a cold time.

I suppose my strategy was to take to the small needle, and the small creative project. I did this to focus and function in a period of chaos.

I am thinking about how that has gone for me, this morning.

The next thing I am going to think about is this: ten uses for the sewing kit.