Backtracking

There are -as always -things on my mind and some of them, I can't discuss here -or often, anywhere, for that matter.

Saturday night, some things happened that I'd love to talk about -openly -but for various reasons, I can't do that. Mainly because anyone who knows me would know immediately who/what I am referring to and there are things involved, people involved, that would be affected, possibly misunderstood, hurt, etc. So I won't go there.

And somehow, as I thought about the conversation I had then, it made me think about my current needlework project I'm working on -a sampler (Christmas themed) done in counted cross-stitching.

I've finished about 1/3 of said project now. My progress is pretty slow with it because I tend to get off track, counting stitches in one line on the pattern and then applying the stitches that line calls for but in the wrong line on the cloth. And then, when I get to a certain point where things should come together, I see there's a problem and begin to check back and forth from the project instructions to my work until I find the error of my stitching.

And if I wouldn't have had to do that so many times over the past 10 days now, I'd probably be over half-way done with this darned sampler!

Instead, I have ripped out stitches -again and again -and restitched the area only to see yet another error and ripped out more stitches yet again -and again!

Frustrating? Yes, you betcha!

But isn't that pretty much the way life can be with us at times too?

We do something that seems okay at the time and then, things get all discombobulated and we try to fix things, to make amends. Sometimes, the first repair works fine and other times -like with my counted cross-stitching -it has to be undone several times and reworked until it comes out the way it is supposed to be.

And isn't that also the way it is with raising children too? We put in some stitches and things look okay or good at first and then, a bit later, we see there's a problem so we go back and try to correct it. Maybe it's a good fix, maybe not, but if it's not a good fix, don't we try yet again to make it come out right? So that the finished product -the teen, then the adult -is able to withstand the rigors of life in general then from having had those stitches -as it where -replaced as needed, redone when necessary?

Life is very much like a cross-stitch sampler with all kinds of scenes in it, all kinds of stitches, threads, colors and such and like that sampler, it has to be dealt with in a correct manner -keep the stitch count on the fabric matching the required stitch count, stitch type, color as shown on the pattern guide.

And sometimes in life, as in counted cross-stitching, it does often seem like it is a vicious cycle of backtracking, ripping out bad stitches, incorrect placements and such, all in order to get ourselves back on the right row, with the right elements in play for us then.

And every once in a while, when things in life get too far off-track, that we can't see straight or are really fed up with going round and round with something, that we have to put that item into a little pile that is an I'll come back and deal with this later, when I can see straight, see my way through this once again.

That isn't always a giving up thing, but rather resting, getting reinforcements, re-energizing in order to get whatever the project or issue is completed and a job well done in the end then.