Being Thankful

Hi friends!

This time of year, as those of us in the US approach Thanksgiving, we traditionally think about what has been good in our lives and things we are thankful for. But lately, speaking specifically about the last 2 years, it has been hard to see what those good things might be due to a pandemic… political discord the level of which we have not seen in years… social isolation ….

oh wait!

 

I was going to talk about things we can be thankful for– not the things we can complain about! Even last year, during the pandemic, there were things we could be thankful for. For example, I know last Thanksgiving, thank to Zoom and social media platforms, I at least got to see my kids on screen and chat with them. We even had a virtual holiday dinner with a couple of our kids! Technology helped us stay in touch.

This year, I am going to get to spend holidays with my kids. I know I can be thankful for that. 

Gratitude and being thankful is not ignoring the things that are going bad in our lives; it is choosing to focus on the good things. If you read self help books, they say that what you say in your head, becomes the truth. 

If you say things are bad, well then they are. And yes, sometimes things are bad. That is life: there are accidents, illness, death, discord, differing opinions… all things that can add to the stress of making it through every day.

But looking for the good, recognizing it, acknowledging it and then truly sinking into it and appreciating the lighter side of a situation can help to process it, to help us make it through and come out the other side.

Think about a taking quilt class; you are excited for the class, to learn something new. But, it turns out, it is a little harder to do, a little harder to grasp the concept and execute the steps than you thought. 

If you start to go negative in your head, well, it doesn’t help. You tell yourself, this is too hard, I am not good at this and suddenly, you can’t learn anymore. You can’t make progress because you told yourself you can’t.

This year, I am learning to do new things. I can’t show you these new things yet but I can tell you little about them. I am designing fabric! How cool is that? Not just having a Signature line, which were lines designed by someone else for me, but ones I design myself! Did I tell you this already?

 

 

I can’t believe I was given the opportunity to do this. It is so exciting!

And scary.

My head said: You are not an artist. You went to nursing school, not art school. You can’t draw. You don’t know how to use Adobe Illustrator. You don’t, you can’t…. that little voice in my head at times would stop me in my tracks, tell me I can’t do this, who do I think I am…

But then I would tell myself it is OK to make a bad image. It is OK to try and if I end up creating junk, oh well. Because I will learn from the junk, I will learn from trying and eventually I will get better. 

I am so thankful I get to do this. I am so thankful that I am able to take the time, to learn and if it works out, great! If not, I have learned a lot that I can use in other applications.

I hope you all can find what you are thankful for this week. I know I am also thankful for you. For all of you who show up, read my blog, comment, follow me on social media, get my newsletter, etc. You support me in my small business and I am so grateful.

 

happy quilting!

Kate

p.s. Next week I will be back with the November Exploring the Basics post – on my reimagined Birds in the Air block! those of you who have been making blocks along with me as part of the free Mystery Challenge will know what it looks like by Monday!

p.p.s. I am going to spend a little time with family this Thanksgiving- so my shop will not be shipping for a few days. You can still order – and, remember, PDF patterns are on sale until November 30th! 

p.p.s. Need a quick holiday gift? I put all my samples in my ETSY shop on sale- I have some table runners that you can use for a hostess gift or whatever! Click here to check them out!