Dancing with the Red Queen

A couple of people have written, asking me if I'm okay. I've not been blogging as much as I used to, as much as I like to. I've not been emailing as much as I used to, as much as I like to.

And I'm okay. Thank you for inquiring!

I'm reclaiming my life! So many of the Things That Matter fell by the wayside during the months I was doing transcription. This morning, for example, Joe and I began to tackle an enormous (I'm not saying exactly how enormous, but imagine an overflowing laundry basket . . . ) collection of stuff that accumulated and, I swear, bred during the time of neglect! Bills, recipes, mail, flotsam all abound, and I'm sure when I get to the bottom of it there will be jetsam as well.

I've been asked to serve on a new, relatively short-term committee at church and at the first meeting this somehow evolved into my co-chairing it. We've been spending a little more time with Sherry and family, helping them to get ready for Biscuit's arrival (stay tuned, stay tuned!), and I've been finally sewing at long last in increments greater than twenty minutes.

Another Whackie Girl is at the machine quilter's, the YBR for Sam's big-boy bed is in the hand-binding stage, the wall hanging for Biscuit is ready for sandwiching (how appropriate!), a Laurel Burch Jungle Songs project is being assembled for an upcoming baby shower, a couple more Festival of Trees are finished, yet another new BOM has begun. And it all feels so good.

Before the Dancing Ladies became my logo, Alice (of Wonderland fame) running with the Red Queen was my symbol. The genes in my family of origin have a chromosome (or two) for doing too much. Bonnie and I have it and so does Susan. The rest seem to be spared, though I have my suspicions about Kristen. We come to the fork in the road and go down it, believing somehow that if we get it all done, we'll get the opportunity to go back and follow the other path. We just want to do it all.

Carroll writes:

"'Well, in our country,' said Alice, still panting a little, 'you'd generally get to somewhere else -- if you ran very fast for a long time as we've been doing.' 'A slow sort of country!' said the Queen. 'Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you wanted to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!'"

This isn't to say that I race through everything. It's more of a convoluted explanation of taking on too much.

The Dancing Ladies logo came about at approximately the same time as the encounter that inspired my recent post, Slow Cloth, Healing Cloth. I began, at last, to know that there are choices to be made, and that it is better to do fewer things with intentionality than many things with mixed results.

Right now I'm catching up. And for a brief time, I've resumed the jog with the Red Queen (at my age, the knees won't support "running very fast").

I am okay. I am so okay. It will all settle down at some point and I'll resume the dance with the ladies.