A motif a day - meditation in May

I've got this idea. It's still not fully formed or finished yet, but I've been thinking about it a lot and I thought it might help to get it out here. Writing it might help me work out the details and perhaps after you've read it, you might have some suggestions as to how it might work too.

I guess the whole thing originates with the kindness thing, which has been completely life changing and I really should blog about more. Part of being kind to myself has been giving myself the gift of time out of the family and farm chaos. Time that is mine. Time to tune out and tune right in. And I've come to the realisation that I need regular meditation in my life.

Many of my friends, and my two smallest daughters, sit regularly alone or in groups and close their minds off to the chatter and focus on something or nothing at all. For some reason I just cannot do that. I've never been able to. The second I try, it's like an invitation for a flood of ideas and lists and conversations and memories to gush through my mind. I try to focus on my breath, to come back to center, but there's never any stopping that rush of stuff.

For a while now I've been toying with the idea that walking is my meditation. One step in front of the other, breathing in and out. I lovelovelove walking. But when I look at it truthfully I can see that mostly I walk with someone else: Bren, Indi, my parents, Jo-Jo and more recently Annabel and Lola. And while we step out the miles, we talk and tell stories and laugh and plan. Walking really promotes the best types of conversations. And when I occasionally do walk alone, I usually listen to podcasts or music. So while walking is all the best for almost everything, it's rarely a time to tune out or in.

Which brings me to crochet. Yay!

Yesterday I was sitting with the girls in the middle of the kitchen garden around the fire. They were playing the most beautiful game in a make believe restaurant. They'd drawn up a menu on a blackboard and were taking make believe orders and setting about making the food from sand and leaves and flowers. I watched them for a while as I cast off the sleeve of Miss Pepper's cardigan and then I sat there empty handed. It felt strange and slightly unsettling to have finished something and not yet started anything else.

Soon after, I went inside to gather some snacks and drinks and walked past my basket of cottons and had a powerful urge to crochet something colourful and quick and just for fun. So I grabbed my size three hook, some yarn and a book and headed back out.

And for the next ten or twenty minutes I sat in the sun, in my own little world, following the pattern and letting my hands do their thing and thought about how much I love crochet. How crochet gives me that meditation. How crochet allows my fingers to be busy and my mind to completely tune out, or in. And I realised that crochet is my meditation.

And then I started thinking about testing out this crochet as meditation theory. Taking some time out of the everyday-every single day.

While my plan was slowly unraveling in my mind I considered something productive like a square a day or a stripe of a blanket a day, but then that kind of defeats the purpose. My world is so dictated by the useful and the practical that this needs to be more 'just because'.

I considered some of the glorious mandalas that I've been seeing around the place, but realistically this has to be something quick to be achievable. Time is an issue. A circle of six or seven rounds seems like it'll be doable.

And then as I finished the last round of my circle it occurred to me that the whole time I had been hooking it, I had been feeling grateful for crochet. Loving the stitching and the choosing and the making. Feeling all happy inside as it came together and became something. A meditation about something I love or am grateful for feels like a wonderful thing to do.

So the plan became a little bit more formed. I will aim to crochet a small circle motif every day for the month of May. I will take 10 or 15 minutes out of the rush-rush to sit quietly and make. And while I crochet I will try my hardest to mediate/think/consider about something that I am grateful for in the world. Big things, local things, global things, homey things, all kinds of grateful things. And I think I'll blog it along the way. A photo everyday, or almost everyday and a little grateful dedication.

And now for the bit that I'm getting stuck on. I'd love to involve you guys, if you are interested and willing of course. I love the idea of crochet lovers all over the world virtually sitting together, taking time, making time, being kind and grateful to ourselves and each other and our worlds. I'd love to make this a bit of a community thing, but I can't work out how.

Do you know how?
Do you know what I mean?
Does this interest you?
Do you meditate already?
Do you crochet meditate already?

Help!

xx

PS The last time I did a motif a day in May - I LOVED it!!
PS This project does frighten me, the announcement and the commitment and the time factor, but I think that's a good thing and I'm not going to hide from it.