Balance

Many of us who indulge our love of needle and thread also find great joy in putting our green thumbs to use in our gardens.

Gardener or not however, most of us are acutely aware of the beauty found in nature and appreciate how it changes from season to season. The lavish blossoms of spring give way to the abundant flowers of summer. The vibrant colour of autumn’s changing leaves are closely followed by the sparseness of winter’s bare branches.

In our hometown of Adelaide, whilst spring is yet to, well spring, it would seem Mother Nature didn’t get that memo! Our days feel for all intents and purposes like we’re still in the middle of winter, yet the trees abound with blossom.

As we looked outward this morning, we couldn’t help but be captured by the delicate white blossom barely clinging to the trees from which it came.

As a sudden gust of wind arose, individual petals were whipped from the trees in a flurry of ‘snow’ and landed on the ground, leading us to wonder whose responsibility it was to clear the paths it now covered.

And that’s when we realised that nothing is all good or all bad. There’s a balance to be found in everything.

The abundant flowers of summer require constant watering to keep them flourishing. Those vibrant leaves of autumn need raking, and often winter’s bare branches can be prone to breaking under the weight of heavy rains or snow. And we’re now particularly attuned to just how often paths need clearing from spring’s ‘snow storms’!

The same is true in our time with needle and thread.

A single project is rarely all good or all bad. There will be elements we love such as falling into the meditative push and pull of needle and thread through fabric as we find the rhythm of a familiar stitch. The satisfaction of anchoring the final thread of a project we’ve poured our time and talent into.

But also, there’ll be sections we’d rather not have to complete – transferring a complicated design, an infinite number of French knots or binding large quilts anyone?!

Whilst the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ will differ for each of us, we’ll all have a list for both. What do you love and loathe about your time with needle and thread? We’d love you to take the time to email and let us know.

And next time we’re faced with the ‘bad’, we just need to remember that somewhere along the way we’re bound to find the ‘good’, sometimes we just have to look a little harder than others!