to weave the intricate tapestry of one’s life

This week I picked up Katherine Mansfield’s Letters & Journals from my bookshelf. There are times when I really enjoy re-reading books that I’ve read before, some I’ve read multiple times. I’m not sure why.. it’s just a thing I quite like. Also I have no library books or new books to read at home at the moment. And reading at bed time is for sure a much better option than scrolling Instagram or playing ‘I heart Hue’ (which is quite an interesting game in itself, but still a ‘eyes-connected to the phone’ thing). As an aside, in the pages of this book is a train ticket from when I was in Paris 21 years ago.

A section in KMs writing that caught my eye was this:

“To weave the intricate tapestry of one’s own life, it is well to take a thread from many harmonious skeins - and to realise that there must be harmony. Not necessary to grow the sheep, comb the wool, colour and brand it - but joyfully take all that is ready, and with that saved time, go a great way further”.

I really love the idea of this. That we can follow along from the path of others, to evolve their ideas, to hand them down through the generations.

I do not take this to mean to steal from the hard work of others, but instead to learn from. To gather information, inspiration, advice from the ‘thread from many harmonious skeins’. What does this mean to you?

In my life, in my creative making, in my business, in the way I write, photograph, create I do gather from these sometimes invisible, sometimes very tangible, often quiet and not quite known threads around my life. Some are passed through generations, some are snippets gathered and remembered, stored and held.