Tidy Up Time

When the kids were little, we always had "tidy up time" at the end of the day when they would help put away their toys and things so that the living room returned to something ever so slightly less than total chaos.  My mom started this tradition when we went to Newfoundland for the first ever time in 1997 when Fin was only seven months old.  She got him to help gather up his things before bedtime - she even made it into a game that was fun - and the notion stuck with us.  These days it is a little harder to motivate the wee ones (ha!) to pick up their things and sing "tidy up time!".  Personally, I just like the word tidy.  It is so...tidy.  In Newfoundland, there is a contest called the "Tidy Towns" contest.  Gillams has never won and I must confess that many of the towns sporting signage that they were once the winner of this title are a little...um...boring.  Sorry, but it is true.

Well, call it tidy or call it dull, my week has been all about tidying up.

First, heavens be praised, I finished my 500-hr teacher training.  I can hear the shouts of joy and relief!  My apologies if I have ventured into "unbearable" with all the yoga talk.  It has been an intense and wonderful year.  Finishing is definitely bittersweet.  Happy to have my weekends back, sad to not have a reason to be with my fellow YTT's, a group that I have grown to love.  And sad to not be looking closely at all aspects of yoga from all angles.  Fortunately it is a lifetime of learning.  I will try to keep the sharing to a minimum.

And second, I de-installed my piece in New Haven.  In addition to many hours of quality knitting time on MetroNorth, it offered an opportunity for some artsy do-nothing photos. 

According to the curator, many of the passers-by in downtown New Haven eagerly embraced the message, some even raising their fists in the air and shouting "Do nothing!  Yah!".

My work is nothing if not a crowd pleaser.

For me, however, this piece was as much about considering what it might mean to do nothing as it was a deep appreciation of the suction cup hook.  Will I ever create something that uses 450 of them again?  I can only dream.  

And you have to admit, it was a pretty tidy solution.