Out there and in here

My work is getting out there and I’m exploring how I feel about it.

I think the last ten year cycle (60-70 years of age) is coming to an end. We moved to Maine in 2016 and I jumped into a lot of new hobbies and ideas. New relationships with new friends. Now I feel a big need to pull back, be more contemplative (if possible!), pay more attention to everyday moments. Not to be so driven. I’m not sure what I had been striving for. Maybe it was all the leftover energy from my way of being while working. There is no need for that any more. I’m outgrowing it.

My crewel patches are part of a quilt being raffled. I sold two little books in clamshell boxes at my friend’s book launch party in Connecticut on June 7. They are pictured in this post from 2024. I wasn’t even intending to sell them, but people wanted them. Special people to me, that I wanted to have them. I regretted selling them for a little while – thought I have to make more! Then I just let them go.

This past weekend, just a week later, I sold two more of the Golden House embroideries at an art show run by my neighbor and others in the Farmstead Artists collective. So “Seeing Night for the First Time” and “In a House of Many Rooms” now have new homes, again with great people I know. Now I have four embroideries left in my possession. I might give them to family members if they want them.

It feels good actually. Both to get some recognition and to let go. The real value for me is in the slow making. And paying attention.

I really enjoyed our trip to Connecticut, especially staying in the Black Rock neighborhood of Bridgeport. We dropped in unexpectedly on friends who were delighted to see us and made us dinner. We had one little room in an AirBnb a few blocks away from them. Near the end of our meal, a fast moving storm came through and we elected to run for it. We got back to our AirBnb safely – I was mostly worried about a tree falling on us, the winds were fierce. We were pretty much soaked, but it was exhilarating. Then the next morning, we went for a peaceful, sunny, and freshly washed walk in a neighborhood filled with flowers and flowering trees. And had breakfast at Harborview Market, one of our favoriate places to eat, with Sam’s son, his wife, and Sam’s two grandsons. And a sparrow. I was filled with appreciation.