First and foremost, THE WEBSITE IS UP!! It’s finally here and it feels oh so good! It is the culmination of months of figuring and taking professional photos of my art for the first time in ever! It’s one of those surreal moments where you sit back and say, “girl, did I really make all that!” And having the callouses to prove it!
”Where did you forget yourself?”
That’s the question I like to ask myself when I’m having those old mess thoughts and the world feels a little heavier than it should. I take inventory of all my pieces.
Laugh in the belly waiting to burst out at the first sight of something silly.
Check.
Memory of my first love when we kissed in a pool when I was 16. 16 in the pool before I knew that chlorine could, as my caramel shaded friend was quick to point out “make you dark as midnight.” That was the last time I was in a pool.
Check.
The sound of small rooms with good people and soft music. The kind of room you want to melt into.
Check.
I find myself completing this list daily. Even on good days, just in case I miss one thing whilst rushing out the door. Whilst running away or running toward. I think of where I’ve been and where I’m going and how I’m getting there. I think of how I got here and if I’ve forgotten anything. Anything I forgot that I might need like my confidence or my ability to make a joke at a funeral (I don’t go to funerals anymore)
My body is a community. Keeping up with stories and birthdays and the memories from when I was 16. Making sure I don’t forget myself somewhere. I wish I’d thought this way when I was that young. Young me would have found older me so interesting, so much more myself. Ourselves.
I guess in all of history, we’ve been doing that with others, right? Creating culture around the pieces of ourselves and each other that we didn’t want to forget. Making lists in our minds and on old paper and out of fabric (you didn’t think I was gonna pass up the chance to connect quilting and the creation of a living community document, did you?)
Are you keeping the pieces of yourself? Are you making documents to remember who you are when it gets too hard to cope?
Well you should be.
S.C.