The Things We Can Control
Nov. 14th, 2008 09:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sakon76In this life, there are things we can control and things we can't. I generally try to be like the proverbial duck and let the latter roll off my back because, really, there's no point to working myself up in knots over something I can't effect, is there? Still, being human and distinctly imperfect, I do end up stressing about situations and things that are out of my hands. And it's part of my nature, at those times of stress, to find something I can control. Generally this means embroidery. Specifically, counted cross-stitch embroidery.
Now, it's not something I do only when I'm under stress; I genuinely enjoy it and have faith that some year I might actually finish the current (Map of the World) project. I've also promised myself that when I do finish the slaggin' thing, I'm going to get it framed and hang it in the living room as a sign of my own stubborn perseverance. But I digress. Even though I do not always have stress in my life when I have my embroidery needle in hand, when I do have stress in my life, I tend to embroider. It's not hard to figure out why: this is something I can control, and each little square filled in with color makes me feel better. It fills me with satisfaction when I've finished up all of one color and get to move on to the next. I even muse over the color names sometimes; whoever named the current color I'm working on "Very Light Drab Brown" obviously didn't think much of it. I actually think it's quite a nice pale tan with a hint of gray.
It's also fun to say "Look, I embroidered a camel/lion/deer/horse!" and show it to my Wonderful Husband and watch him try to figure out how the blotch of color in any way resembles said animal. Hopefully they'll look better after the detail lines get put on...?
Back to embroidering a deer.
Now, it's not something I do only when I'm under stress; I genuinely enjoy it and have faith that some year I might actually finish the current (Map of the World) project. I've also promised myself that when I do finish the slaggin' thing, I'm going to get it framed and hang it in the living room as a sign of my own stubborn perseverance. But I digress. Even though I do not always have stress in my life when I have my embroidery needle in hand, when I do have stress in my life, I tend to embroider. It's not hard to figure out why: this is something I can control, and each little square filled in with color makes me feel better. It fills me with satisfaction when I've finished up all of one color and get to move on to the next. I even muse over the color names sometimes; whoever named the current color I'm working on "Very Light Drab Brown" obviously didn't think much of it. I actually think it's quite a nice pale tan with a hint of gray.
It's also fun to say "Look, I embroidered a camel/lion/deer/horse!" and show it to my Wonderful Husband and watch him try to figure out how the blotch of color in any way resembles said animal. Hopefully they'll look better after the detail lines get put on...?
Back to embroidering a deer.
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Date: 2008-11-15 04:03 pm (UTC)And yes, detail lines really help.