thinking with a bead brain

The things I like best about beading are that it constantly challenges me. Nothing is so perfect that I think;" Okay I'm finished!" There is always something new to learn, some new stitch or technique to try. I sit down in the morning and by the time I go to bed I have finished pieces of jewelry that can awe me or dismay me. There are the beads, in all their many colored many shaped glory. I also like the mindfulness and  even the repetition. You do repeat your actions but you must always pay enough attention to the pattern that you don't make mistakes. I am even coming to appreciate the mistakes. I have learned that mistakes matter. Sometimes you can fudge around them but sometimes the little mistake throws the whole design off. Then theres nothing to do but pull out the threads or even the scissors and starting over. Sometimes many times. But I do it. And I'm cheerful about it. I'm learning to deal with fustrations and mistakes and all sorts of things you would think I should know how to deal with already, at my great age of 60. But each day the beading teaches me more about my life.
Finally I have ambitions. For a while I had no ambitions, now I want,   make,  participate,  create. All my life I was searching for my medium and now I've found it and its like I'm in love with life all over again.