It begins like a drawing does, or a knitting project. A drawn line. A cast on stitch. And then another. And another. And another until you reach a stopping point, not an end, but a good place to finish. And then you begin again. Each day is a beginning. Each year. Every decade. I am fast approaching a new decade. In a few months my age will begin with a different digit. I’ve been thinking a good deal about this, pondering it, mulling over it in my mind and heart. Assessing the lines and yarns that have been before, looking at the present ones, and gazing into what they might be in the coming ten years.

It is an interesting, wonderful, and somewhat odd feeling to be able to look behind oneself at the years that have gone before. And as my current life is evolving, there is a great deal of comfort in holding the lines that have brought me through all the previous years. My husband and I stand amazed at our middle child (son) getting ready to graduate high school in a month or so. We marvel at our oldest daughter who will be a senior in college in the fall, and at our youngest daughter who will enter her final year of middle school. And he and I both will soon turn into this new decade of our lives. It looks like it will be a very full one indeed.

So as these changes whirl around me, I hold onto these LIFE lines in pen and yarn.  Engaging in creativity as a way of life is stabilizing, soothing, anchoring, centering. The crazier life gets, the more I hold onto the lines, reaching for them if even for a few minutes here, an hour there, two hours on Friday mornings when I get to draw with others who love it as I do. Teaching women to knit and crochet offers me a way to sit down and connect with someone else who loves yarn, just the feel of it running through one’s fingers, stitch after stitch. I’m grateful for this artful life.

And as I turn into a new decade, I’m sensing more and more the desire to encourage you to live artfully as well! I know many of you do. But we all need encouragement to keep going, to keep putting pen to paper or yarn to needle or whatever your choice of making things. We need to hear someone say to us: Keep going! Keep on making things! It’s good for you! It’s great for those around you! Hold onto the creative lifeline and keep on living artfully!

It is my desire to continue to do this, to keep encouraging you (and in so doing I myself am encouraged) to live an artful life. Placing both blogs under this one umbrella is my way of embracing ALL that I love to create and speaking with one voice to any who might like to listen here. There is so much more to share, so much more for you in the coming weeks and months.

I’m glad you’re here!

*****

Jennifer