Robbin L Marcus
For up-to-date Alexander class information, please click:
  • HOME
  • Music Teaching Resources
    • Workshops & Residencies
    • Kodaly Teacher Certification
    • Folk Music Links
  • Dance Resources
    • Contra/Square Dance Caller
    • Family/Community Dance Leader
    • School Workshops
    • Contra and English Dance Piano
    • "Reelplay" Dance Band
    • Traditional Dance Links
  • Health and Wellness
    • Alexander Technique >
      • Private Alexander Lessons
      • A.T. Class Schedule and Pre-registration
      • A. T. Links
    • Reiki
  • Piano Lessons
    • Marcus Music Studio calendar and fees
    • Marcus Music Studio piano contract
  • Upcoming Workshops
  • Blog

Diving for Light, Day 15 - Creative Solitude

4/10/2020

2 Comments

 
One of the secrets of happiness is having a host of activities that we can enjoy when we are alone…
When we use our skills for self-nourishment and to foster deeper connections with people…loneliness transforms into solitude.
- Mary Pipher, Women Rowing North

I’ve been a crafter of one kind or another as long as I can remember. When I was a little girl, I was always making something - from potholders on a little metal loom to yarn art, knitting, crocheting, needlepoint and even petit point. My mother was my example - when her day was done, her hands were always busy. She was an expert knitter and I still have and use some of her sweaters and blankets.
Picture
This skirt I'm wearing in this photo was one of the last things my mother made for me.
My mother also sewed, a lot - both practical things for the house like curtains and placemats, but also dressmaker-level apparel for all of us. Her favorite saying was “There’s a difference between homemade and handmade.” If my mother made it, it was handmade. I learned a lot about sewing from her, mostly by osmosis, as it didn’t interest me very much while she was still living.

After my mom’s death, sewing became one of the ways I felt most in contact with her, and I learned just how much I had absorbed from watching her all those years. 
I sewed a lot, especially when my daughter was young and I could make her clothes. My mother’s wonderful machine, so much better than mine, made sewing easier and faster. I could still smell my mother’s scent in her fabric boxes. As I worked, I heard my mother’s voice inside my head, guiding my next steps and giving me the shortcuts she’d worked for years to learn. 
 
My machine is mostly idle now unless I’m sewing for the house - I haven’t really made the time to sew for myself for a very long time. I’m excited to pull out all those dress patterns I cut out and never put together. I also brought home some beautiful cottons and silk blends from India that I want to put to good use. Voila! There is time. Lots of time.

Like many people all over the US, I started back into it this week by making masks for my extended family. It’s been a real treat to see all the beautiful variety of cloth that people are sewing so generously for others on social media. I know there are a lot of frustrated first-time sewers out there, but I’d encourage you to stick with it. It’s very self-nourishing to produce something tangibly beautiful, and then to share that with others. I hope we see the start of a home-sewing revival. 

Whatever your method of creative expression, take the time now to nourish yourself by doing it. 
Picture
Modeling my latest creation
If it produces a tangible result you can share with others, do that. Be the light for someone else today. It can make your own solitude much less lonely.

Exercise to Try
Awareness in Activity
Working on a craft, playing music, even working on a computer or your phone can be a powerful stimulus. We find ourselves drawn to what we are immersed in - both mentally and physically. Our heads go down to meet our work. Later, we discover we have a stiff neck, sore shoulders, or eye strain, and we wonder why.
 
In Alexander Technique, we learn to bring our awareness to our work by observing in the moment what we are doing. For an example - I’m sewing my face masks. My machine runs out of thread, and I have to rethread my needle. I have a couple of choices here:
  1. I can scrunch my face down as close as I can get to the needle and still have room for my fingers to put the thread through, tightening my neck and my back in the process.
  2. I can remain upright and allow myself to see the needle without going towards it. I envision the thread going easily into the needle as I see the whole space around where I am working with my hands. It threads quickly and easily.
  3. I can do what my mother did and use a magnifying glass to see the needle more clearly from a distance, then follow choice 2.
Whatever my choice, if I allow myself to become aware of it, I can either change it or do it differently in order to do it with ease and grace. 
 
When you are doing your favorite activity this week, take some time to pause and be aware of how you’re doing what you’re doing. See what happens.
2 Comments
Phillip Washington link
10/7/2022 06:38:20 pm

Medical indicate physical across happen. Different ahead morning nothing fear begin certain.

Reply
Micheal Long link
11/5/2022 05:40:01 pm

Onto majority high far. Traditional state who large here. Agreement fight Congress final. Popular according including result hour.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Robbin Marcus

    A new 21 weekday blog series on Slow Forward - gentleness with myself -  will begin on Monday, February 5, 2023
    ​Sign up on the 2/2/2023 post to receive it daily in your email.
    ​

    An occasional post from me, about stuff that interests me.

    2023 blog series:
    Slow Forward 

    2020 blog series:
    1) Processing - Experience, Thought, Action
    ​2) Diving for Light - Shedding 
    light on a dark time

    2019 blog series: 
    Exploring the Power of Habit 

    All
    Alexander Technique
    COVID-19
    Mindfulness

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    August 2018

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly