Half a Step Over

Reinventing Yourself     

You know what I’m talking about. You wake up one day and realize you have to start the next phase of your life. In my case, that meant the kids were truly grown and gone. My kids have finished college, and graduate school, and are productive members of society. One is married; both have good jobs and are totally self-supporting. (I freely admit to getting them four years of college, but after that, they knew we were there to help out if really needed but would not be supporting them. To give them credit, they have only asked if there was absolute dire need, and even then, they hated to do it.)

But then I realized, what’s next for me? Yes, I worked full-time, but it wasn’t the only thing I wanted to have time for. My husband has been known to travel frequently—although he comes home on weekends—so I have a lot of free evenings. I have never had a large group of friends so I don’t go out all the time. What do I do?

Back to Before...the Craft Effect

In my case, I don’t think I want to really change my life. I just want to get back to things I had lost out on doing before. So, lately, I’ve been making a real effort to get back to them. I’m finishing crochet projects, and keeping track of others I want to do. I like to challenge myself to learn new patterns and see how they go. In fact, I made a scarf just to see if I could get it to look like the picture (although I left off the fringe they had; to me it was a little too cutesy to add fringe with heart shapes crocheted into it). Turns out I had no trouble making my work and the picture match, so I then gifted the scarf to a friend who wears a lot of black (the scarf was in black and white). Turns out her car color is slightly off white with black stripes. She thought the scarf would match that really well so it’s now a seat accessory on the passenger side. It never occurred to me that I could go into the auto accessory business but it might be a thought. 

While I was in Denver for my first grandchild, my other daughter found a Tunisian crochet class scheduled at her favorite fabric/wool store. I took two mornings off from babysitting and did that. I've always wanted to learn Tunisian but could never figure out how to make it work. One sentence from the instructor, and a couple of illustrations later, and I was off  and running. There will be a second set of classes out there in February--and you know, I really should visit my granddaughter more often.

And I had a needlepoint project I’d been working on periodically. I’ve never paid a lot of attention to needlepoint stitches. Since I’m left-handed, I hear a lot of complaints that I work funny. But for the latest project I actively lookied for different stitches to give it more texture. That’s been fun, and worked out too. Final review will come from that granddaughter since it's hanging over her crib.

The other issue is that I have psoriatic arthritis--light on the “psoriatic” (for which I’m really grateful); heavy on the arthritis (for which I’m not that grateful).  Any needle/crochet work helps keep my hands more limber, which I really need. And, the work helps me calm my mind. I really need to do more in the evenings so I can turn myself off to sleep.

Finally

But I think it's really about what I really want to do going forward. My editing business is picking up but I can't stare at words, whether on a computer screen or on paper, all day. It's not good for my eyes. And we all need to regularly change things up in our lives. I once saw a commercial for an arthritis drug. I don't remember which drug they were selling, but I do remember one line the character said: If you rest, you rust. It's time to polish myself up.