The Made By Hand

A little slice of the desk as I left it a few moments ago, with a piece in progress in the foreground.  Alas...I suddenly realized I was quite out of the very thread I was using and not a strand of it to be found in any of those chaotic baskets!  Tomorrow is another day.  But as I sat sewing, I alternated between moments of meditation and impatience.  I almost always feel behind where I feel I need to be and these little pieces, small as they are, often take quite a long time.  But it's when I remind myself that the very act of embroidering by hand is the only way this work will get made, that I slow down and remember exactly what it is I am doing.  It's about making by hand, slowing down time, being in the moment and knowing that no one else is called to make the work that only each one of us can make.  There it is...that's all there is, the traces we leave behind.