getting out of our own way as we seek to transform the way we live, so that the way we live regenerates life, it requires so much re-patterning. if we are to cease repeating the same errors that got us into this mess, we must first observe our patterns.
sometimes my well-intentioned creative solutions follow a pattern that hampers my ability to create solutions. it was that way with me and the willow basket.
various sources of chaos have dominated my life and one of those is laundry. in conversation with one of those helpful mentors who allow me to think aloud, out in the open where i can see things clearly, the pattern struck me clear as day. this is how it usually goes:
i think to myself, really, the chaos is generating from a fundamental need to sort. to put like-with-like. to solve this would be very sensible.
then i think, right, sort into baskets, several of them, and i might be really kindergarten about it and label them too. good idea. so maybe other people in the household could easily join in, coaxed by the suggestion, ‘wash me’ with the distinction, ‘towels’ or ‘rags’ or ‘bedlinens’ &tc., we might even become rather organised. can someone throw in a load of ‘kitchen linens’? thank you!
here is where things go awry.
i think to myself, baskets, ah, yes, like the willow baskets in our bedroom, a large one for dark clothing and a smaller companion for light ones. beautiful, lidded pieces, that make cracking noises in the dry seasons, that have followed us from house to house for over a decade, trusty friends. free of plastic, gorgeous, handmade things. lifetime tools. beautiful.
and i think, we could get more willow baskets for the purpose.
and –wait for it– what i would really love is to make the baskets myself…
and –if that weren’t enough to sound some sort of alarm– wouldn’t it be so good to grow our own basketry willow? (though the goats got in and ate the basketry willow i was growing in one spot and in another the wild rose out-competed it, and i will have to scythe my way in to find out for certain…)
at which point i think, today is much too busy for basketry and i will think more about willow beds later –just look at the laundry piling up–!
it’s a good job we can laugh. i have many, many, many of these mental circles and now i see them, i notice more every day.
making baskets from homegrown willow is a beautiful plan, which i will go on holding, softly. it emerges from a set of beautiful intentions. another one which can stand well in its stead is to make do and mend, to use what you have. in the mean time, there are now good-enough stand-ins collected from whatever we already had, labeled neatly, giving order to chaos, perhaps even freeing up time and space for homemade, homegrown willow baskets to emerge some day.
have you spotted any of your own willow baskets?
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dear letter patrons, it is a vulnerable thing to release new work out into the world, so thank you for meeting me in this safer space. your encouragement means so much. i’d love to hear how this lands with you.