We reflect, often, on the weather here in the Midwest. Right now, the temperature is close to 100 but I remember just a very short time ago it was spring break in our little neck of the woods, and (as usual) it was dreary and rainy in northwest Indiana. Many families escaped by heading somewhere–anywhere–south. South is warmer, south is sunnier, south is better.
I was unable to get away, because my husband’s break did not match our son’s and so there were three weeks of spring vacation in our house…for different people… none of which overlapped. And so, it was decided, one of the days our son was off, that I would take a weekday away from the shop and we would head to my daughter’s college campus an hour away. Still cloudy and rainy, but hey we got a fun lunch and walked around an art museum so that’s still a good Wednesday!
One of the art classes in the art museum held several looms, which had a variety of projects in progress. Different yarns of different colors and thicknesses were stretched out on these devices, some more tightly and some more loosely… “future completeness” still very much in process. I hate process, to be honest; I much prefer the final destination. There’s an irony that I’m a wedding and event planner for a living, because I hate all the steps leading up to anything.
Except I love the final event that much more, because all the steps were done in advance.
This loom-looking last week reminded me of a speaker I had heard in December regarding, as she called it, “Life as a Tapestry.” What if the vertical strings were what you were born with, and the horizontal strings were what you did with it all? Imagine birth, race, zip code, hair color, economic status, religion, weather in your hometown…all these things you get handed comprise the strings going up and down on the loom. But then you get creative liberty with the weaving that goes left to right; you get to choose the colors, roughness, tightness of the weave, and more, as you combine what was handed to you with what you, essentially, are handing back.
We do this with our events here but, wow, we all do it in life. We take a tablescape or a budget or a design vision or a timeline that the client has given me, and then add our own gifts to create a celebration of life.
Shouldn’t life be the same way?
Take the vertical strings you were given. Add your own gifts. And call it a celebration of life.