Pins and Stithes: Useful Endeavors
This morning I got an email from offTheLeftEye, a Swedenborgian publication. If you don’t know who Emanuel Swedenborg is, you can read about him on the Swedenborg Foundation website. I give the reference because he was a philosopher far ahead of his time, worth checking out. There was a quote in my email that stuck with me for the remainder of the day. Here is a link you can follow if you would like to know more about Swedenborg:
In the quote, Swedenborg states that love and wisdom are only theoretical entities until they find expression in useful endeavor. Today, I ponder what “useful endeavor” might be. The Oxford dictionary defines useful as “(having) a practical purpose…to make oneself useful is to do something that is of some value or benefit to someone.
I have spent the last several months learning more new things than I can count, all toward a specific goal. I am developing ways to teach my craft to people who might not have the luxury of coming and spending time in my studio. In addition, I have been making art. In the photo above, you can see a piece I am working on. I took the photograph today, in my front yard. because I wanted to see the color. It began to snow while I was outside, leaving small frosted crystals on the surface of the fabric.
It is pinned together ready for its final stitches. Hundreds of pins, thousands of stitches. Each bit of it separately has no locus or reference point. But together, all of the pieces make a “whole that is far greater than the sum of its parts”. (Aristotle)
I hope this next year I build and grow on all the pieces I am putting together in my personal growth, and that I will be able to communicate that to my students as well. I do not plan on giving up. My self, my immediate family circle, my community, the larger community, all the way to the global community and, most likely, the community of sentient life forms beyond our solar system and our galaxy, all grow and develop from the positive energy of love and wisdom.
Carol LeBaron
www.followcarollebaron.com
