All of this jibber jabber must have started somewhere, yes? Well, you could say that it started somewhere in my phone, in the handy “notes section” that I don’t use for anything practical. Side note: I always find myself making grocery lists in the that a) never get used (and then I forget to buy egg for those cupcakes I’m making) or b) get glanced at once while I’m lost in the depths of the grocery store only to then stay in my phone for all eternity as an attempt to consistently confuse me. I.E. I thought I bought eggs LAST week?
Anyway, back to where we started. I started a note called “Tidbits.” Suppose I could have been a bit more vague about that one, oh wait, nope that’s about as vague as you could get. I created it as a place to house all of the “stoner” thoughts that I had. Things like “how do you plan on changing the world by simply blending in?” or “You should probably just listen to your gut.”
Boom. Your life is changed now, you should probably put the book down.
NO, pick it back up, come back. Your life isn’t going to change by reading some thoughts that some random author with “stoner brain” shared with you. And we’re still just getting to beginning of the whole ordeal, so stay seated and please wait while we work our way back to your regularly scheduled programing.
So the one “tidbit” that more or less started the whole idea of me sharing ALL of the “tidbits” with you was simply “Life is a lot like cross-stitching. 50 percent of the work you do doesn’t seem like progress. You can make all kinds of mistakes and criss-cross back and forth and no one will notice because it’s all in the back, the front can still remain perfect.”
As you may have gathered this was also the idea behind the name of the book. You see, in addition to having “stoner brain” I have always loved to learn new crafts. In my life there is always the old standby of baking (I consider this a craft seeing as how they sell baking tools in the craft stores these days) but I always like to try new things. I’ve learned how to crochet, taught myself to knit, definitely know how to mod-podge with the best of them, can using a sewing machine to make pursues and headbands, dabbled in making “upcycled” t-shirt jewelry oh and played around with cross-stitch.
And the thing is that this one particular thought seemed so applicable to life in general. It’s great for the process of evangelism. It’s great for the process of weight loss, the process of building community, the process of just about anything.
The idea is that the fruits of your labor are hard to see. Maybe you’ve started a weight loss journey and are down 15 pounds and are starting to get frustrated. Think of the cross-stitch. Maybe you’re working on building a community within your church but the relationships just seem to have stagnated. Think of the cross-stitch.
You see, when cross stitching, each stitch is two parts. You first make a \ and then you go back and make a / over it to make an X. Between each stitch there is a | on the back. A crucial step that adds absolutely no visual change to the front of the piece. When you’re all done your piece will have a lot of Xs on the front and lots and lots of | on the back. In addition to all of this, you will have to go over most all of the |s with more |s. There’s a lot of work that seems unnecessary, but without it the piece as a whole would never come together.
So you see, when you’re 15 pounds down and are still comfortably wearing the same pair of pants, remember the cross-stitch. Remember that it may not seem like anything is changing, but this is crucial to the over all transformation.
When you’re sitting at coffee with the same person for the 12th time and are sick of having the same conversation, remember the cross-stitch. All of those meetings are just a bunch of |s that are absolutely crucial to the foundation of your community.
Someday you’ll look back and be incredibly grateful that you didn’t give up, that you stuck with it. When you eventually see the finished piece you’ll understand that all of the hard work was necessary. That without it you masterpiece would have no foundation.
Oh and the good news about all of this stitch non-sense is that you can hide all of those nasty tangles. Those fights, those late night chips, the sobbing on the floor wanting it to just be easy. all those little knots that seem just impossible to undo. Those fights you’ve had that feel like they will ruin everything. All of that is on the back. All of that is just part of the process, part of the building. It may not be crucial to the piece, but it sure as hell didn’t destroy it either.
When you feel stuck, remember the cross-stitch. Remember that this will all come to fruition someday, it will all be worth it when you let yourself take a step back and admire what’s been done. Also, it would be really hard to undo, so you better enjoy it.
~Ann
noncommittalcrafter 