moving

Packing. (With four-legged help.)

| Betsy

Bobbin’s been an excellent packing partner. So helpful, in fact, she actually packed herself. I think she looks quite pleased with her efforts, no? Move into my new apartment next weekend, while working a few hundred miles north during the week. Excited to have everything in its right (new!) place. Also quite excited to be added to the most awesome list of all time regarding environmental change over here.

So, in the spirit of new adventures, here’s a lovely quote via Marimello’s Tumblr. Thanks, Marie! I think it’s the perfectest (sic) quote for moving in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD. Here’s to letting go, stepping up to meet the sun, and feeling the earth solid and warm beneath your feet.

x

She let go She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go. She let go of the fear. She let go of the judgments. She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head. She let go of the committee of indecision within her. She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons. Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go. She didn’t ask anyone for advice. She didn’t read a book on how to let go. She didn’t search the scriptures. She just let go. She let go of all of the memories that held her back. She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward. She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right. She didn’t promise to let go. She didn’t journal about it. She didn’t write the projected date in her Day-Timer. She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper. She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope. She just let go. She didn’t analyze whether she should let go. She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter. She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment. She didn’t call the prayer line. She didn’t utter one word. She just let go. No one was around when it happened. There was no applause or congratulations. No one thanked her or praised her. No one noticed a thing. Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go. There was no effort. There was no struggle. It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad. It was what it was, and it is just that. In the space of letting go, she let it all be. A small smile came over her face. A light breeze blew through her. And the sun and the moon shone forevermore…”

–Ernest Holmes

[And, I apologize for all the emails I haven’t answered recently that aren’t specifically time sensitive. I still love you the most, just swamped and want to reply when I have proper time to answer. And when I do, then you can write back tell me what you’ve been up to and we can continue like normal and still be friends forever, ok? I am, however, posting sporadically to online things that take less than a minute or 140 characters (and start with T) as I go a little stir crazy when I don’t write at all: Tumblr, Twitter]

on the road again.

| Betsy

Some days I feel like a professional mover. I am moving, yet again. Long story short, I am moving somewhere for the summer. I may stay past August depending on what happens in the PhD department.

The best thing about moving is the ideas you have before moving: how you’re going to decorate your new place, how you’re going to stock your kitchen, how this time you’re going to finally designate a space for “work.”

The worst thing about moving: actually moving.

So I’ve decided to take it easy this go-round and load up the Honda with the necessities: clothes, yarn, books, music. Sometimes I feel like some sort of eccentric urban nomad, but then realise that that would be giving myself too much credit.

I also realise that everytime you move you can never move the most important thing: your support network of friends and family. If only I could pack them up, too, into assorted boxes my life would be complete.

Writing about the ethics and politics of craft has made me realise that this whole kooky aura around the idea of craftivism lies in decision-making. Why am I doing what I am doing? Could someone benefit more from this scarf/doll/afghan than me? Do I really need all these craft supplies, materials, excess?

Each time I move (which is often), I am reminded of why I keep what I keep. And how with the power of the internet, I can hold people dear to me closer than ever before.

Now that I’ll finally have a “workspace” in my new digs, I have no need for it. These days my so-called “office” (for complete lack of a better word) is my laptop, headphones and a hot cup of coffee. But I am sure that it will be filled with reams of paper covered with scribbles of stories and queries, skeins of yarn peeping from behind cabinets, and book after book after book.

I have some new projects in the works as I’m trying to crossover from a blog that was created to promote an idea I believed in to something with a bigger scope. I feel like I need to take a step back and look at it all from a wider angle. Because while this whole ‘craft thing’ is tiny, I believe that embracing it has reminded many people of the power of uniquity.

By realising how easy it is to make our own wares, we have simultaneously come to realise that not only is this allowing us to reconnect with our creativity, but also our issues with abundance. In a world of too many choices, we have finally figured out that every decision we make holds power and helps to create change. The thought of people out there making conscious decisions about the way their money and time is spent enlivens me to no end.

I think I’ve gotten to be quite an expert with this moving thing. One day, one day soon perhaps, I’ll have more than just a workspace to fill and more to work on than a laptop that’s heavy. But until I find that place to alit my wings, I will continue to be making each choice carefully and with the best intentions.

pink rocks!

| Betsy

Still in the process of moving. Currently at the parents where if I stay too long online, they are convinced I’m sending out liberal missives using this crackin’ new thing called technology.

I feel like squirrels are helping me move, I’m going at such a slow rate. Picture it, hordes of tiny little furry gray rodents carrying your things (a tampon, a couple of pens, a cassette tape) into the horizon…Me carefully guiding the herd along, making sure they’re paid well with different exotic forms of nuts, kept away from main highways and have plenty of time to chase each other around the trail.

Anyway, someone was nice enough to pass this link along for Lion Brand‘s Crochet for a Cause kit that is currently on sale.

A pink crochet hook and for a good cause? Sign me up!

If you don’t feel like crocheting, at least go here and click to help fund mammograms for the less fortunate.

Back to the moving…

manifestos are like mantras

| Betsy

As I’m moving I will be without a computer for a few days. So, I’ll be wielding old-fashioned pen and paper coming up with a more formidable design for this site. Rock!

However, in the meantime, you might want check out The Revolutionary Knitting Circle Proclamation of Constructive Revolution.

My hope is get some interviews with people who started various projects listed in the Links section, and/or some essays. We’ll see.

If you think of anything email me, with any suggestions. As I always do when I move, I will most likely be listening to lots of ridiculously sad music, feel free to cheer me up.