I love to knit and crochet. I love all the bright colors of the yarn, full of promise and potential. I can’t help but buy copious amounts of yarn. Everyone says I have too much, but I won’t give up a single strand, no matter how much my husband begs me. I need it all I keep telling him.
Knitting something like a sweater or afghan doesn’t happen overnight, obviously. It takes time and tenacity to take one long piece of string and turn it into thousands upon thousands of stitches, one after the other, each hooking perfectly into the next.
Words are like that. Writing is like that. Taking each word and putting it next to another, stitching them together to form sentences, then paragraphs, then whole stories. But to get the right pattern, you have to know the right words, you have to know the right ‘stitches’ to put next to each other, the ones that will link and create the beautiful fabric of the story you see in your head.
Not only do you need the words, but you also need the drive to keep going. Once you start, you have to finish, even if it takes you ‘forever’. Because to leave a project half done is to always have that hanging over your head, blocking your way from moving on to the next thing. So you do a little every day and, eventually, you have your reward of a finished project.
But it’s so much more than the reward of completion. It’s the satisfaction of knowing that you made something with your own mind and your own hands. And that’s what creating is all about. Making something new, in order to connect with the people around you. Either by warming them with a new blanket, or by entertaining them with a new story. A connection is what it’s all about.
Skinny Grey Dog 