Being confident of this, he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6 (NIV)
Into my newfound enthusiasm for quilting rings the rational voice of husband. “So, are you ever going to work on glass again?” I know what he is hinting at. A few years ago when I was so passionate about fusing glass, he generously gave me 25% of the garage, salvaging a work bench from a friend, constructing a way for me to hook my kiln up to the necessary power outlet. He wants that space back. It has been almost a year since I did any glass work. My workbench collects dead bugs. The dogs pulled out one of the drawers searching for a nest of rats. My tools rust. The hobby I once spent hours on, the expensive glass I needed sits unused. Just like the horse that grazes in the backyard that I rarely ride and the rose garden long plowed under, I have a history of being so completely driven by some passion or another until it, too, no longer consumes me. To be fair, I would probably still be doing glass if my health I hadn’t forced me to find something that didn’t require heat and the horse gets ridden as often as I can find someone to ride with me. Quilting soothes me, and I can do it in the air-conditioning. Whether or not it will be lifelong passion, I can’t say, but for now, I invest my creativity into coordinating fabrics and designing patterns. That is the part I like the best. Putting together the quilt tops, choosing the colors and fabric, selecting a design, cutting the fabric and piecing it together. I don’t mind the quilting part, adding the batting, stitching the back to the front and binding, but I get so excited about how a new quilt might look that I go from one to another without finishing anything. Right now, I have four quilts pieced but not quilted and three more cut out needing to be sewn together. I have fabric for at least four more that is not cut out yet. I posted a new one on line over the weekend and one of my wise (acre) friends commented, “Beautiful, now finish it!” Seems I am lacking in the “finish it” category. And that brings me to my other creative impulse, writing. Caroline’s Story has been sitting in the dust, so to speak, on my computer. I have lots of excuses, health, computer, time, but I think it’s been so long that now I need to heed my friend’s words and just get to it. Last week, I found a letter written by Caroline in a forgotten probate file. Addressed to her brother, it reads in part, “It is raining and the children are so noisy cannot think nor write.” Time for me to quit making excuses and start weaving Caroline’s Story again. Thank goodness, God is not so distracted. He keeps working on me until I am finished. I still have a lot of work that needs doing, too.
I treasure the glass you made for me – but if you've left your space to dust and rust, maybe it's time to offer your kiln and materials up for sale so someone else can make use of them. It's a hard thing to do, giving up something you once treasured. I've been taking a look around my own house and thinking it's time to get rid of some of the implements of various hobbies because I just don't do them anymore.
My mom was like this. She had her "enthusiasms" as my dad called them. She would do things until she mastered them, the moved on to the next thing and never looked back.
Still, I hope you DO finish Caroline's story – I have really enjoyed reading your first two books!!!