Have you ever felt like your world has been cut up into pieces and you can’t figure out how to put them together? Or maybe you know what you want it to look like and have all the parts, just not sure if it will really be what you expect when you do sew them all together?
That is what it is like to put together my dragons. I start with making all the little bits and sometimes it seems like pure chaos. I choose a yarn that calls to me, sometimes lots of different colors, other times a solid color, maybe two that compliment each other. It can be such tedious work. I get all excited when I have completed the various body parts, but then I don’t want to stitch it all together. I have an idea as to what it will look like, but it always comes out with such characteristics I didn’t expect. I’ve made plenty of them, but each one is its own uniqueness.
And isn’t that what we are? Sure, we all have our similarities but not even identical twins are exactly the same. There are slight differences that make us utterly unique.
So many of us try to conform, fit in where we think we belong – or want to, bend to what we think others want us to be. I confess, I’ve lived most of my life as a people pleaser. Only recently, have I strived to put together my life on my own terms. Sometimes it appears as if the feet are where the hands should be, or I am standing on my head, instead of my feet. It surely gives me a different perspective. And I often learn how to be compassionate with myself, and that makes it easier to give, without stripping me of my own vibrant colors.
Don’t let the world tear you to pieces. Call them back, stitch them on a bit tighter and let all the patches and holes be part of your story of strength and joy. It’s okay to cry, to be sad, just don’t stay there. Take a moment and grieve if you must about what pieces you feel are missing, then take a deep breath, let it go, and take another one and then take a step forward. Figure out what piece you need to pick up to complete your project. Slow and steady, with gratitude, make yourself that magnificent masterpiece that you long to be.