Look at me now, cries the Mandala, as it grows in weight and width. It is hard to keep it quiet, hidden, now that it has heft and commands space.
The pandemic death toll topped 100,000 in the US this week. The number is near to 1,000 deaths each day. That, too, commands space, has heft.
I wondered if there were 100,000 stitches in this Mandala, so I counted them thus far: 27,318. This doesn't include the several, many, rows I repeated, stitches I pulled out to make again. It does include some padding - those bobbles which are five stitches woven together with a single stitch and counted as one. I want full credit for the bobbles.
One round in this stage nearly drove me to tears. The stitches were not falling into the places I expected; the instructions said the pattern was asymmetrical - was the seemingly incorrect pattern supposed to be like that? Knowing it couldn't be right, trusting that it was, I tried to keep going. Three times I tried. Three times I failed.
It occurred to me there, hands deep into prairie soil, that the problem wasn't the current row, but rather the previous row. And indeed, upon examination, it was proven so. I missed a few stitches out of the expected 552, making it impossible to move forward.
One round in this stage nearly drove me to tears. The stitches were not falling into the places I expected; the instructions said the pattern was asymmetrical - was the seemingly incorrect pattern supposed to be like that? Knowing it couldn't be right, trusting that it was, I tried to keep going. Three times I tried. Three times I failed.
I finally stuffed the Mandala into my basket and left it in a huff to play in the garden.
It occurred to me there, hands deep into prairie soil, that the problem wasn't the current row, but rather the previous row. And indeed, upon examination, it was proven so. I missed a few stitches out of the expected 552, making it impossible to move forward.
What a lot of analogies this stage can claim:
- A good foundation leads to success.
- I am the trinity of past, present and future.
- Trust your instincts!
- If at first you don't succeed ... try at least three times before giving up in a huff.
- When things are out of sync, reflect on, examine, the past, the situation. Adjust as needed to be successful, to move.on.keep.going.