Motherhood. 10/2023
Mid September, my youngest son who lives in CO, suffered a life altering accident at work. Like his Momma he is a carpenter; just not artsy like me…think more cabinets and remodeling. As he was pushing a piece of trim through his table saw, it bound up, kicked back, and pulled his hand in with it. He partially amputated all four of his fingers on his left hand. I spent a month in CO with him.
Getting back into my shop has been a challenge. I have yet to even turn my table saw on even though a dear friend helped me to install a riving knife and anti kickback grabbers. Simply have not been in the proper head space since his accident and returning home.
I did a lot of putzing around in my shop and finally got myself on my lathe. I decided to simply “practice”. I had a bowl blank that I knew would result with a hole in the vottom. But, I needed to start slowly…make shallow cuts, practice tool holds, build confidences.
I was attempting to make that one last shallow scraping cut on the outside which, could have easily been completed with sandpaper, but again, I was “practicing,” I got a catch, and with that, it exploded into pieces! I felt so defeated. I epoxied it back together and went to bed. I may have even shed a few tears.
The next day, I put it back on the lathe. It soon became obvious that the piece was a representation of the past couple months in my life. I needed to work through it and make something “beautiful” (if only to me) out of it. It became my therapy.
I call it Motherhood.
In the process of becoming a mom we get stretch marks. I did not completely eradicate the tool marks from the catch. As moms, we have to hold it together. We need to hold our children even if we are cracking, breaking, over flowing….and sometimes, we leak. Something happens that creates a hole in our hearts so big it feels like we will never be able to plug that hold and get on with that which, we have been charged.
But eventually we do; we must. We will never be the same, but if can also be beautiful. Dragonflies are a sign of changge. I saw them everywhere in Colorado. They would land on or near me often.
My family is going through a lot of change but my bowl (motherhood) is back to doing its job.
