How many of you mend? You know.....sew buttons back on, replace a zipper, repair a ripped hem - a torn piece of fabric, a hole in a sock or other garment. Do you mend or just simply throw the impaired article of clothing or cloth away?
I was raised by parents who were married in the Great Depression and, who left an indelible imprint on my adulthood. I will go to my grave marveling at how much of our parents and childhoods are carried with us until the very last air we breathe. I do a lot of mending by hand, or by machine, when the old needle, thread and thimble just will not cut it. This, of course, means that the article that I have mended by hand can still be worn without looking as if it was leftover from a garage sale several decades ago. I do have some pride left.
Although I mend, it does not mean that I enjoy mending and have been known to go to great lengths to procrastinate completing the task. As of late, 'mend' has been on my daily chore list for almost three weeks. Finally, yesterday, I announced to myself that the time of reckoning had arrived and I should find nary an excuse to leave 'mending' to yet another twenty-four period. (In personal defense, mending is further complicated by the fact that I cannot see well enough with my mono-vision contacts to thread a needle. Conveniently,then, when my contacts are in, I cannot mend. This simply leads to leaving my contacts in for great lengths of time to avoid the inevitable.)
I digress.
Yesterday I made myself sit down, no contacts in yet, rounded up the appropriate thread colors and items that needed my attention, and got to work. Mending usually never takes very long and when I'm done, I always think to myself, "Why did I wait so long?"
Mending is symbolic, isn't it? I use the word 'mending' but, for others, it could be 'fixing'. The act of returning an item, currently unusable, to a state of use......that would be my definition without consulting my faithful tome - the Merriam Webster Dictionary.
There are days when I need personal mending and there are days when I think of people, places, and things that need 'mending'. Port O Prince, Haiti is certainly at the forefront of thought for a giant, international mending project. As with any mending project, plans must be made, action steps identified, supplies and materials gathered, and skills utilized to tackle the project. In the case of Haiti, there appears to be many 'menders', each with their own ideas and agendas. I pray that The Great Mender will guide all of the workers so that the 'mendees' feel the needles and threads as quickly as possible.
The Haitian devastation makes my puny mending task seem so very insignificant.....puts things in perspective quickly.
Ancora imparo
