Almost a lifetime has passed since I last mused on this year's Transformation & Hope project. In the intervening time we managed a long-delayed vacation to Orkney and a wedding. Intertwined with these events was months of rain and more rain. Talk about some transforming activities since March!
Undoubtedly the project is now a square. Each of the corners was crocheted independently of the other during this stage; the next stage sees me working once again around the perimeter without a break at the corners.
I worked each of the 13 rows at one time, repeating the stitches of the row at each of the four corners. This was somewhat jarring after the 77 rows of wending my way around the center still point, north star, epicenter. To take out my crochet needle, find the corner, start and end anew was fiddly and different, less contemplative and more structured, aligned, marching. I suppose this is how transformation works as well, moving from a rough field to pasture and wheat requires precision and work, planning and scheming, measuring and lifting the plow.
The rain has also been transforming - green wheat fields are yellowed from the water, planes flying overhead to spray fungicide to save crops, floods down Main Streets in towns and sandbags a common site. Our lawn is still green - that never happens in July! I am just getting the grass pulled out of the perennial borders as it has gone wild in the rain. No lilac this year either; the rain did them in.
It was the 9th wettest May on record here in the last 128 years. That's a lot of rain.
The flip side of transformation and this project is, of course, hope. I HOPE that the next stage of the mandala, when I work it in a full, non-stopping square, begins to find a contemplative rhythm once again, building itself around the still point.
I HOPE the crops do well with the rain and provide a stellar yield for our farmers and their families.
I also HOPE I can whack back the out of control grasses and weeds in the garden borders before it gets too hot and dry! And I HOPE some of the vegetables bear fruit.
The photo on the right doesn't look so square, and the colors are really washed out - blame the camera person who couldn't hold her phone at a flat angle and the LED lights that cast a strange color glow over the room.
