Better Balance

Saturday, I woke up feeling heavy... emotionally. I thought about all the "should" things that needed to be done and I thought about how much I'm working over the next week (32 hours) and I decided to play in the studio.

One of the reasons I applied for a job outside the home was to create better balance in my life - especially between work and play. Another was social - the ability to mix with other women and especially with women who love to do what I love to do. After twenty years tucked away in my home office, it has been an eye opener to hear about their day. The list of chores and errands that many women complete before and after working their day job boggles my mind. That's not how I want to spend my life - in a never ending list of (mostly unappreciated) work.

One presumes that these women are in a fabric store because they love working with fabric and yet they claim to never have time. That concerns me. No wonder so many women are stressed and depressed if they never make time for the thing that encourages and nurtures their soul, the thing that gives them energy. The looks I get when I say that I sew most days are really quite amusing. They range from jealousy to condemnation and yet I view my time in the studio as absolutely essential to the health and happiness of both myself and our family. No sewing equals a crabby, tired, stressed out me.




Beyond my regular list, I spent some time Saturday morning exploring new blogs. At Already Pretty, Sal provided a list of lovely links with a brief blurb on each. I clicked through to the ones that intrigued me. The two part series We Are Women. We Are Beautiful. We Are Real at Beautifully Invisible is inspirational reading. When I was teaching art, I often talked to my students about how we are all the same and we are all different - how each person could take the same starting point and go in completely different directions and that neither direction is wrong, they are simply paths to be explored. You can see how absolutely true that is when you read these testimonials - each answer is different, each unique to its writer, each coming from the same starting point.

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you will know that I believe my purpose is to support and encourage others to their best. It's one of the reasons the topics I'm interested in intrigue me including self expression through what we create, what we wear, and the environments in which we live. Life is out of balance when who I am and how I'm feeling doesn't match the rest of my world.

While parts of me remain consistent, other parts shift as I age and evolve. Ari Seth Cohen of Advanced Style took the picture above of 71 year old Beatrix Ost. Minus the turban, with fluffy hair and big jewelry, I would so wear that outfit. Looking at it, it's fairly obvious that it's nothing like what you've seen me wearing on this blog. It illustrates the gap between who I feel I am inside and what I wear and even as I say that I know that I have been attracted to styles like this all my life. Styles that are quite different from the classic, highly conservative, environment in which I grew up. I see finding a way to make that fashion transition as a step toward living fully me, toward better balance.





In the video above, Ari interviews Helen who is eighty-seven. She talks both about her career as a nurse and about her life long love of fashion and especially about how she used to sew. That phrase - used to - bothered me. As I age, I always want to be able to sew because it's another integral part of me being me.

I was encouraged years ago when I read about Adele P. Margolis who in her 90's wrote a book on sewing for and fitting the aging figure. At the time of her death at age 100, the book was in the hands of an agent. I'm not sure if it has been published but I know I need a copy for when I reach that stage. Adele's life story inspires me. She was constantly evolving and learning. The Naked Seamstress wrote an excellent review as did Adele's friend Ellen Steinbaum. There is so much we can learn from those who have lived life longer... about what to do and about what not to do.





In another video, Ari interviews Ruth who is about to turn 100. She talks about how she approaches every day, about currently studying pilates, and about doing her exercises every morning even when she doesn't want to because it makes her feel so much better. She says Ruth, just do it.

As I've mentioned before, I not too motivated to exercise yet listening to Ruth I realized how important it is to my goals for the future - to flexibility, to clear thinking, to the ability to sew. It's made me think about balance in a new way - between the present and the future - and about holistic health that is concerned with our physical, emotional, financial, spiritual, and relational areas of being. I'd add to that list our intellectual area as life long learning is - IMHO - a critical component of a life well lived.

Balance is important in every corner of every area of our lives. Besides sewing and wearing the clothes that I think would truly reflect the inner me, I can see that I have some work to do. I am thinking about what and how and what will that look like and I am - as always - in danger of over-thinking when instead I should say to myself Myrna, just do it.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - the wisdom of the elder women