The need for holiday cheer

I’ve only spent Christmas in the Northern Hemisphere. Where I live, the Christmas Season is typically dark, dreary, rainy, sometimes snowy and, honestly, rather bleak. The song “In the Bleak Midwinter” truly resonates with me. The message of Christmas – Hope, Love, Joy, Peace – is the opposite of bleakness. This message, or this blending of four messages, is one found in every faith tradition I know of. I think we all need to be reminded of the power of these four ideals and be encouraged, even in the darkness of winter, to seek them out. In this, my last posting of 2022, I’m anchoring my reflections on Hope, Love, Joy and Peace.

Hope

Hope has been a key motivator for my work with single use plastic. The hope that I can make a small dent in the problem. The hope that I can encourage others to do the same. And I have found much room for hope on this journey. Looking at my “linked resources” page, especially the “Recycling Resources” section, I’m filled with hope. The problem of plastic in our world is enormous and complicated. But cynicism won’t solve the problem. Only hope can do that. And seeing how many people are addressing this problem is hopeful.

I got all my holiday packages to the post office this week. This year I’m giving soap dishes and baskets as gifts, some of which are shown below. Of course I hope the recipients like them. But more importantly I hope the message of repurposing comes through.

Love

Love is a complex, multi-faceted concept. I believe we need many different manifestations of it in our lives. We need to love people, we need to be loved, but we also need to love things that we do. Weirdly enough, I love working with single use plastic! I did not anticipate this feeling when I started on my journey. I’ve always considered myself more of an arts educator than an artist, but when asked what kind of art I “did” I would always answer “painting is my preferred medium.” And that was true until about two years ago.

I have no explanation for my feeling and I fully embrace the quirkiness of such a passion. Maybe my fascination is in the variety or the potential. I certainly have been amazed by and curious about the range of colors, textures and strength of what shows up at my house. And I enjoy the challenge of figuring out the best use for any type of plastic. I’m not sure if this is a fling or a long term romance, but for now I love using this material!

Joy

Joy and love are related, but in my mind the difference is that joy has an exuberance, an excitement, to it, while love is more stable. Something brings you joy, but you are in love. When one of my projects goes particularly well, I feel joy. And recently I have been joyous about my latest technique, locker hooking.

In my last post, “Days of Discovery,” I introduced the technique of locker hooking. I had seen it at a fiber arts festival and thought it had potential. I had to order some special materials for it, and once they arrived I was launched! Working in this new way has been joyous. If I didn’t have things I want to do for the holidays, I would not be able to put it down.

Below are images of my first full project. Usually my first new item, my “learning basket” as I call it even if it isn’t a basket, looks a little rough. I will refer to it as looking like “a summer camp project.” My first locker hooking attempt did not have that type of learning curve. There are some subtle modifications I made along the way that improved the technique, but it was pretty good right from the start. This rug was made using only newspaper bags and the variety of colors is fascinating to me.

It is a joy for me to look at this rug and think about the potential for others. Design possibilities with this technique seem limitless. I’m itching to make more during that usually gloomy post holiday season.

Peace

In my post “Labors of Love” I explore the benefits that come from creating “good work.” One of the benefits is the meditative quality of working with your hands. When I started on this journey I was physically and emotionally damaged. I had broken my ankle and I had retired earlier than originally planned from a work environment that had become unmanageable for me. At first I was braiding plastic because I could do it while sitting on the couch. Somehow I found it incredibly relaxing. I remember mentioning this to a friend who commented “I bet when you are braiding, your blood pressure goes down.” I’m sure she was right.

There’s nothing new or radical about the healing properties of art. Its therapeutic nature is well documented. I have learned in many Native American traditions the process of weaving has a spiritual component associated with it. I can’t fully explain that association, but I believe it. The time I spend on a basket, rug, soap dish or bowl is time that I can be relaxed and centered. It brings me great peace.

Limitless possibilities in the new year

One thing I have learned this year is that there are so many different ways to reuse or recycle items. As a culture we need to get better at it. It requires rethinking many different systems so that we move away from a single use mentality. The current buzz word for this idea is “circular economy.” There was a time when being wasteful was frowned on. That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore as planned obsolescence and conspicuous consumption still seem to be part of our modern world. As the depression era generation is leaving the planet, we need to revive their mentality of resourcefulness and stewardship. Doing so can be a way to live out the ideals of hope, love, joy and peace daily.

I’ll close with some images of unexpected repurposing: Three wreaths I made. We lost many branches in a recent snow and wind storm. I was saddened by these loses, especially that of about 1/3 of a beloved camellia bush. But I decided I could repurpose the limbs into holiday decorations. I had saved my wreath frames from last year because it seemed so wasteful for the metal frames to go into my trash can. I was planning to return them to the Yakima Fruit Market where we have purchased our tree and wreaths for the last several years. But when we had so many branches down, I made my own wreaths using the saved frames. I listened to some favorite holiday music while working and turned the sad event of downed branches into something lovely.

Many thanks to my readers in 2022. I wish you all a holiday season full of hope, love, joy and peace. I look forward to seeing where we will go together in 2023.