OK. This is just about it. Maybe a bit more stitching in the sky. Maybe. But probably not.
It’s funny how this works. When I have my nose in the cloth, sometimes I don’t see things. And when I look at the pics here in blog format, certain important information leaps out. Like the gray block in front of her face. Where did that come from? Is she seeing into it? Through it? Is it blocking vision? The proverbial “speck in thine own eye?” So, yes. There will be a few vision dots here. Probably orange thread beads, leading towards the portal.
Just this simple observation, that I had been too close to see, for some reason is really thrilling me this morning. I’m wanting to yell, “Yes.” Because, because…so many things have been pointing to that lately. Pointing to the fact that it’s so easy to only see what we’re “programmed” to see . Eckhart Tolle talks about this a lot. About seeing things from two different places–from the place of conditioning and engaged and invested “ego.” And from that “other” place. That true place.
Maybe it’s enough that I sense what I’m trying to say here. Elaborating on it–well, the waters muddied. And , so I deleted a few paragraphs. But if you’re interested, Tolle’s “A New Earth” is pretty amazing. It’s subtitled “Awakening to your life’s purpose” or something like that. But it could as accurately been subtitled “Awakening.”
I check the CD set from the library every few months. It’s a touchstone. A grounding. A tune-up. Like a 3,000 mile oil change. And a few days ago I ordered my very own copy. The libraries’ set has seen a lot of wear and tear and now there are gaps and glitches where it sticks and repeats incessantly. Even tapping the lid of my $5 Goodwill CD player doesn’t help it out.
There is a correlation here–a correlation between this cloth and “awakening.” And seeing the need just now for a “vision path” is huge. Maybe it’s enough for now just to say that.
following thread 
Patricia, this is an amazing tale of the plight of the starfish and your heart and minds awakening.
You have worked on a very large and complex picture, via a small cloth, and come to a happier balance of how to look and see . I am so impressed how this stitching can be such wonderful meditation and open our eyes to deeper truths. The piece is really beautiful , thanks for sharing the story and thanks for inspiration to read New Earth.
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i agree with you–it is amazing that cloth can be such a deepening experience. thanks for your comments, understanding and support. love to you
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“Yet another part of poetry’s solace, related to “solutio”(*), is the increase of subtlety a good poem provides. Subtlety’s etymological roots rest in loom-woven cloth. It is the name we give to thought that is both finely textured and free of range, able to connect disparate qualities into the unified useable fabric of a new whole. Respect of the uncertain is subtlety’s inscape. In subtle response, thought is stitched into place with it’s own undertows, opposites and extensions with a mind that questions and crosshatches its statements and feelings.”
from “Hiddenness, Uncertainty, Surprise – Three Generative Energies of Poetry” by Jane Hirshfield (p 31)Newcastle/Bloodaxe Poetry Series: 7
(*solutio – the medieval alchemist’s process of making something workable and transformable by making it more fluid )
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i woke up this morning chanting “solutio”–this is a wonderful quote. many many thanks.
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Patricia, I am truly appreciating following along with you as this cloth has become…and the synchronicity of the Eckhart Tolle writing and my downsizing my CD collection and having just put a series of his conversations with Oprah from several years back into my “give to the community radio station sale” box…and not yet taking the box to them..I will listen again. I have two books by Tolle and those two stay on the shelf and I shall re-read…many times more.
It is so true for me with everything…to look at closely, and then from a distance gives to me information that is never available from one place of seeing…literally and figuratively.
I appreciate the story of the cloth that you have been sharing and am glad I found your blog in 2013 and begin to follow along.
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yes, i understand the downsizing thing. the funny thing is i rarely buy cd’s and i more rarely listen to things several times. but this cd is one that speaks to every cell of my being.
i’m glad also that you are here, commentingr. tried to go to your blog but didn’t make it?
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Patricia my blog is on typepad kamfspirithreads and I have been absent since May.. now that the studio downsizing is really making a space difference and my Ragged Cloth Cafe post is up..not a new one for 8 weeks.. so time to get back to my blog, my work and moving forward..really enjoy following you and will make an effort to comment…sometimes I race through the computer time..
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It’s been good to watch you work through your pain with this piece. I’m glad the portal remains as a hopeful end note. Ah, this book… I think I picked it up at a used book sale a while back. (I’m a bit of a hoarder with books.) Haven’t looked thorough it yet–but I’ll find it and move it up in the queue.
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hi Beth. i have a hard time reading his books. which is strange since i do read a lot. but hearing the voice. that’s another thing all together. let me know if you find it and what you think. love to yuo
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Love this post and the cloth, just got back from being away so doing a quick catch up will look into Eckhart Tolle’s writing when I re read your blog. Thanks
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hi Debbie. glad you’re back. i’ve been admiring the dye work on your blog, and imagining what it must be like to “live by the sea.” blessings.
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you know…however many times i looked upon this Cloth, i never saw the “grey block”.
i guess for me it was simply part of that Firmament of a sky. but now, yes. a grey block.
and i don’t know what to think of it. maybe the Cloth is still talking. or maybe it is the place
where you are required to say the Certain Words to allow the Gesture to be Fulfilled?
only you and the Cloth can know.
it’s such an extraordinary work. such love involved
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hi Grace. i’m still sitting with the cloth. the block became a box. holding some thing. vision, perhaps. right now i feel like i don’t need to know. i trust it. whatever is being held. a few more days i think and she will be ready.
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