When I was at Fabric Depot this Moda dishtowel fabric jumped out at me. It's already hemmed on the selvages, so you just cut and sew (or serge) two more hems and you get awesome dishtowels! I kind of freaked out at the lovely simplicity of this. I spent a long time just patting this fabric. Fold, pat-pat, fold, pat-pat. Handling fabric is so meditative. I figured that 3/4 yard was the perfect amount for a dish towel. I'm not sure where you can find this fabric online. If you know, please feel free to mention it in the comments.
Unrelated to dishtowels, I was thinking about a friend who had some great success recently and my reaction to her. I thought "good for her!" and it was such a genuine and real response—to feel good for her. And then I had to admit, I don't always feel that way about all the sucesses of others. Sometimes I feel sensitive, hyper-critical, and prone to comparing and all that. Blogs, flickr, facebook, and twitter make it so easy to compare with everyone all the time, without even realizing it. I do this with all kinds of things, from researching homeschooling to wanting to put out an album of phil collins covers on ukelele and realizing everyone has a uke cover album out. But, this comparing predates the internet for me, so although I am all for taking a break from the computer, as long as I plan to have interactions with other humans, I feel I need to keep looking at this honestly and working on my reactions and emotional response.
I do a pretty good job of keeping a balanced perspective, but every once in awhile I am hit by the achievement of someone, and I do not think "good for them." I don't think anything horrible about that person, but it gets me going, feeling like I need to do more—read more, create more, utilize more of my potential, or something like that. It's not just online either, it comes up with so many things in life. The constant need I have to improve. To be goal oriented. It's a slippery slope and so very detrimental to my creativity and overall contentment. So, recently I started saying to myself "good for them" to everyone the phrase can apply to. It's amazing how much it comes up. And it's amazing how much better I feel. Instead of trying to figure out what I think about someone's situation and have an opinion about it, I just say, before anything else, "good for them." and you know what? I believe it. And then I am done. I can move on. I don't need to figure out what it means for me, for them, or if I need to do anything with that information (like start a new business? make a movie? travel the world?) My brain is free. I don't need to form an opinion about what anyone else does. It's so liberating. Good for them.
Saying to myself "good for them" also reminds me what I have believed for a long time now—that there is enough. Enough creativity, success, achievement, accolades, attention, for everyone. The achievement of any one person doesn't take away the potential or realized achievements of anyone else. There is enough for all. By saying "good for them" I take myself out of the comparison—it has no bearing on what I do. Or what I choose not to do.
And now I realize that I can only say "good for them" and believe it when I can also say "good for me." and believe it. And I do. Usually. When I actually remeber to say "good for me". I need a magnet or a mug with that written on it. (A new business!?)
