Wisdom of the Art of Cross-Stitching.

Teachings on the Process of a Creative Life...

Everything is a teacher if we are open to it. And one of my teachers recently has been the practice of cross-stitching which I appear to have taken a loving to lately! 

Here are some of the learnings that the silky embroidery threads have whispered all sultry-like in my ears over the last few months!

1. You always start with the same blank canvas as last time, as the next time, as the person next to you in the café (true story ~ yesterday I sat next to this beautiful local Vietnamese woman who showed me the silk threads she'd hand dyed herself as she chatted about being a craft artist!! This is before I'd even drunk my morning coffee!). What you do with this blank canvas is in your power! You can literally create anything ~ how cool is that?!

2. You have to focus. Drifting off or not being present guarantees that you will mess it up and have to unravel the work you've done so far (probably with a sigh, some mutterings and a vague feeling of frustration!). Your attention is needed. Sure, listen to music, conversations drifting past in fragments, podcasts and other aural delights, but your gaze needs to be on the matter at hand.

3. Get used to the fact that as the image takes shape you might need to re-frame it slightly. A little shift this way or that. A re-centering. This is perfectly normal and will immediately lift your mood so that all is well again! Sometimes all we need is a little change of perspective to re-inspire us!

4. Patience is your friend. Go slow. Slower if you can. Let the rhythm of the stitching take you into no mind. Into meditation. Into a state of Grace whereby there's only you, canvas, needle and thread. If you try to rush you will fail. If you have no patience then I suggest you take up a huge intricate piece to craft. You'll thank me later!

5. It won't look like you want it to. Nope! Close but not quite the same. But life is like that isn't it? And as we all know, it's the process and not the destination that counts. You'll have a piece of art that never existed before and you'll have used your creative time wisely. It's a win-win my love!

6. Accidents happen. You may bleed. You may experience an ouch as the needle that carries the thread of your creation pricks your finger a la all those fairy telings of old. After the initial shock and the possible stain of your blood on your work, you'll adapt anew. You'll get creative. You'll make a little flourish here and there. You'll improvise. You'll live.

7. And finally, once your piece is complete, and you gaze at it with pride (you made that woohoo!!!), you'll turn it over and you'll marvel at the absolute fuckin mess you see there!! Of course, this is not what you will see as it hangs on your wall. It's not what others will see as they ooh and aah at your creation. But without it this completed image could not exist. The messiness is a vital part of the process. Some might say it's the foundation for the beauty that is seen when you flip it all over. These people are correct. Embrace the mess. It leads to wonder.

And so ends the wisdom teachings of the art of cross-stitching for today!

Aho X

Hello sweet thing. Thank you so much for your time and attention. In a world with a thousand and one modes of distraction, the fact that you’ve read my words means the whole goddamn world to me. If you enjoyed this then do please consider that a like, a comment, or/and a share means that more wondrous beings, like yourself, get to read this too and that makes this wordsmith very happy indeed. You may also want to subscribe for free. I’m intending to write each day of my travelling adventures, with musings on living a creative life of freedom, trust, magic, grace, soul and eros. It would be a pleasure to have you by my side, riding along for the pure hell of it all!!