A lesson from a pineapple

Once when we lived in the Solomon Islands, we discovered that the prickly plant outside our doorstep was in fact a pineapple plant. We realised this when the top started sprouting a tiny little bud.
My mum was so excited; we were living in the tropics and she had never grown a pineapple before, so she eagerly waited and watched it grow. We would get excited updates from her about how it was going. We could all see how it was going, but she would still tell us.
Once she said "I think it might be a week or two and I think it'll be ready!"
There had been so much anticipation.
Then soon after she had made that last announcement, I walked past the plant and I saw that midget pineapple looking so cute. So I came back outside with a butter knife and I cut that pineapple off. When I looked at this small pineapple and I held it in my hands, something I had done in my eagerness, I really felt as if I had killed something.
I placed the severed pineapple back on the stem, but with dread I realised I couldn't connect it back up to it's life source. My mum found that pineapple sitting on top of the plant, detatched and withering and asked me if I had done it but I denied it in my guilt.
I guess you just have to wait for some things. Some things take time to mature.
We impatiently wonder when things will be complete and in our eagerness sever that which is growing.
It's easier with a pineapple because you can look over and see what stage it is at. Sometimes spiritually we can't see how things are progressing. In our blindness we still have to trust and take comfort from any small sign of life.

Crafting

Now let's get down to the important things.
Other than reminiscing about the way I "used to write", I also make things.

It's a hobby. Okay, perhaps it's more like a compulsion. Maybe even an obsession. I'm not sure if it's curable.

I see things (garbage really) and the first thing I think is what I could make from it.
At times this can be highly inconvenient and my living spaces can begin to look more like a I've let a monkey loose with a pair of scissors and some craft supplies.
Positive side: on a good day I can whip up a throw pillow in under 60 seconds from an old teddy bear and a discarded t-shirt

I look at green beer bottles lying in the gutter and think 'glass pendulum earrings'.
I see empty soft drink cans and think 'Christmas decorations'.
I see sticks and think 'strung together, that would make a cute natural mobile".

I wonder where this fits in with my life.
I wonder whether it will remain a hobby/compulsion/obsession or if I'll actually get to use this drive for something useful one day. I sure hope so.

I leave you with piccies of my recycled Christmas decorations. Made from Coke cans, light bulbs and old newspapers.

I keep having to tell myself to continue crafting all over everything. Even when I'm tired and I have 3 waking hours to myself and I have every self given excuse to sleep instead.
I tell myself this to keep the bug alive.
It may not be an illness, an unhealthy obsession or a nasty compulsion.
I think I need this thing. It's so part of me, my relationship with this drive seems symbiotic.
So in the light of that, I do hope this thing is not curable.

Smiles,
Meiche.