From the Presidents' Corner

June 2017

Presidents’ Letter - This weekend I was reminded of the verse in Ecclesiastes that says “to everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under Heaven.” Right now, many of us find ourselves in the season of “Overwhelmed.” While I have never seen it listed on a calendar or planner, I know it exists, and you do too. We are deep in the season of spring yard work, planning, selecting, planting, weeding, watering, and fretting. We are also in the season of graduations and high school reunions, and family reunions, and weddings and parties, and escaping for a quick vacation before every place becomes overrun with families with small kids. Oh, for a little peace and quiet.

What are you overwhelmed with right now? How do you cope?? I just got back from my wonderful trip to Peru, and I am overwhelmed by my 6941 pictures! That’s just one thing on my plate. I have gotten them down under 3000 at this point, looking to reach less than 2000 within five days. I deal with this particular problem by setting small goals, like ‘eliminate 200 per day,’ although in this case it would still take me too long. My 50th high school reunion is the weekend of the June meeting. My family reunion is two weeks after that. Both of those are in Massachusetts. And I just got back from Massachusetts where I performed a wedding for a good friend’s daughter -- great fun, but tiring.

I am also in the middle of rearranging some plants in my flower beds, which means deciding which ones to do away with, and then trying to figure out what to buy!! I have spent far too much money on plants this year, but I rationalize it by telling myself that the perennials won’t need to be replaced for years. Actually I hate gardening. But I really enjoy having nice looking beds, so it gets done.

I am overwhelmed by the mess in my wool room—my husband seems to think he can store things in this space (it is listed as “storage room” on the floor plan). I can barely walk into it now. How do I deal with this? Sometimes I don’t. When I take wool out for a project (who has time to hook?), I try to put it all back where it belongs when the project is finished, but sometimes I am working on several projects at the same time, and I leave little piles of potential inclusions all over the place. Sometimes the piles are larger than I can cope with.

And then there is the ‘overwhelmed by too many good ideas’ season. I came back from Peru with specific colors I want to figure out how to dye (like Santa Catalina Blue, Santa Catalina red, and Machu Picchu sky). But then again, I came back from Iceland with some colors I wanted to dye (different shades of ice, or water), and from the Canadian Rockies several years ago with some colors (like tundra red, after a very small plant I saw, and Bow Lake Blue). When will I have a season to dye for (ha ha)? I have the white wool, some place in my wool room. And then I have the patterns inspired by some place I saw, that are floating around in my brain. Five hundred lifetimes wouldn’t be enough to accomplish everything. Usually I cope by dividing the situation into small, bite-size chunks—things that can get done in an hour or a half a day. I do that with my hooking too. But right now, I think I’ll just take a break and have a cup of tea. It will all get done someday…..

Wishing you lots of loops, and peaceful days -- Weezie, Jan and Fred