It's Going to Happen
Sometimes you're rolling along through your Bloglines, skimming and clicking and tabbing, and you get stopped short by something that hits you just the right way. I love it when that happens.
From Posie, who always inspires me to get creative:
I put the needles down and didn't pick them up again for several years. When I tried to knit again, this time with a woman in her 70s named Heather who worked at the Yarn Garden, it was a completely different experience. I wanted to make something special for my soon-to-be-born niece, and Heather said, "Just pick something." And I started saying, "But I can't! I'm not allowed! The other teacher said it could only be wool! And she has to do her super-secret recalculations! Are you going to do the super-secret calculations???" And, of course, poor bewildered Heather (having learned to knit at age 7) was like, "Oh, pshaw. We'll make whatever you love. Pick something. What do you love?" And that is why I love Heather, rest her. I think my blood pressure dropped 20 points systolic. And — zing! — I instantly became a member of the club. I felt freedom and joy. I made a little kimono out of the craziest, cutest, bobble-y-ist yarn you've ever seen, and it wasn't easy, but what's so great about "easy"? Easy is relative. You just need a little space and a little time and a little C'mon baby! Join the human race! There is no secret handshake. You just get in there. If one book doesn't work, get another. If one teacher doesn't resonate, get another. It's all part of how it goes. You don't just stop, you go. I remember an old English professor of mine saying a long, long time ago, "Someday you will read something that will blow your mind. You'll be so excited you'll want to read every single thing about that thing, or by that person, or whatever it is. It will happen." And it just amazed me that someone would promise that. I remember thinking, "My God, it's going to happen to me! It's going to happen!" And since then it's happened a million times, and I get up every morning wondering if it might happen, that day, again. You just gotta believe.