Blocks for E.A.

 It is my sweet friend E.A.s turn to request bee blocks from our Quilts Unscripted bee, I'm telling you, every month I appreciate the quilters in this bee more and more. Each one offers up such carefully thought out prompts that encourage me to dig deep. This month was no exception.

E.A. asked us to explore the idea of holding space for someone, whether that means thinking about people who hold space for us, being fully present for us, or us holding space for others. She wanted us to think about how that feels and to create identical (or as close to identical as improv can be) pairs of blocks on this theme.

After many interesting conversations with people close to me, some deep personal thought, and maybe even a few tears, I created two pairs of blocks for her.

For my first pair, I used blues and grays to represent turbulent waters. Often when I am struggling with something in my life I feel like I am drowning (interesting since I have a pretty intense fear of water to begin with). The lightness at the top and the rays coming down represent incredible people in my life who hold out their arms to me in my darkest times and pull me from despair. For some of them, holding space means sitting with me, listening to me and holding me until I find peace. For others, it means speaking difficult truths into me in a kind and gentle way.  (deep enough for you? if you came here for laughs today I'm sorry to disappoint!)

My second pair of blocks takes a whole different turn. They illustrate how it feels for me to hold space for my three adult children (represented by the three triangles above). The soft pink at the bottom represents home, where my husband and I both literally hold space for them, if they ever need a place to land, and figuratively hold space for them in our hearts. I believe that knowing we are always here, believing in them and ready to catch them if they need us, has allowed them all to soar and succeed. The really cool thing has been watching them hold space for each other over the years. 

So I thank E.A. for giving me the means to articulate (both in words and in fabric) thoughts that I have had for many years. These blocks will be winging their way to Nashville soon.