The Beauty of the Tapestry

We have grown to appreciate wall art.  Painted pieces, mosaics, and embroidered creations interest us, as does the symbolism behind each.  We are intrigued by the connection the artist has with the art.  We are fascinated by the process of creation and the many stages of effort that a person pours into the final product. 

To create, there is a natural progression that includes inspiration, percolation, preparation, creation, and reflection.  Perhaps we missed something and don’t consider ourselves artists, but intellectually, this makes sense to us.

We usually find ourselves somewhere between inspiration and reflection. Caught up in the production, we sometimes miss what inspires us and seldom take time to reflect. This is something we work on in sobriety: constructing life scenarios while appreciating all elements lest we miss the big picture.

The tapestry fascinates with its textures, shapes, lines, and colors.  Bold beauty on the topside and disjointed disarray underneath.  It wasn’t until we invested the time to examine both sides that we uncovered the significance of perspective.  Upon investigation (reflection), we found the meaning of the mess and its part in the magnificent.  It wasn’t until we understood the intent that we could grasp the gravity of the creation. 

We have made a ritual of unplugging from the life engulfing us and asking ourselves the “what inspires” question. We let that germinate (percolate) and ponder our true position. It doesn’t take long for us to see the blessings, the power, of our position. We untangle ourselves from the knots and frayed strings—the ugliness of the underbelly—flipping the frame to get a sense of the process in real-time. 

This doesn’t have to be a big budget, big deal event.  It can happen in a bedroom, broom closet, or beach.  It’s not about the what as much as it is about the who.  It is about tying the vision to the function. It is about reconnecting the inspiration to the reflection. 

We don’t look to walk away with some mass motivation.  Conversely, we look to walk away with simple confirmation and a strong conviction to continue to create, drawing from a bank of inspiration.  The process repeats as visualization feeds the fingers to keep crafting. 

And though we know we will tire, we have seen, for a moment, the finality of it all, which brings us right back to inspiration. 

What always happens is that we walk away from the experience with an admiration of the art and a certain pleasure we will need to continue the cuts and ties. We will exhale in appreciation of what has been and inhale in preparation for what is to come.

We are glad that we have prioritized our mini times of reflection. We appreciate the glimpse of the storyline unfolding and are grateful for the tools we have to complete the production.

We are thankful today for the chaos and confusion on the underside. We now know better that it is part of the overall project—which is us.

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Thoughts and ideas for this blog post were taken and built upon from a sober.coffee bonus podcast #183 titled “Befuddled No More”… The podcast dropped on 9/25/2024.  Click here to hear the podcast. 

Photo by Ali Homayoun Nia on Unsplash

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