Sketchwriterjess: Holiday Thoughts 2016: The miracle of correct handedness, crafting, and writing.

Christmas and Hanukkah in Florida: It's kind of like Left-Handedness

The weather is changing a little here where I live...

I'm thinking that this year the Holidays will be different. More happy, more joyful, especially

since through the miracle of knitting and crocheting I found out I was truly left handed, instead of

right handed.

I spent my whole life feeling frustrated...

People called me a spaz. I was clumsy and I could never

follow along with conversations or class. I was frustrated because my earliest teacher suggested life would be so much easier if I used my right hand instead of my left, despite my left hand handwriting was far stronger. I listened to her and took her advice, I used my right hand for everything and I paid the price.;)

I kept feeling like there was something I was missing in life. It wasn't until I realized that I am far

stronger and more comfortable as a left-handed person now then I ever was as a right-handed person that the only bright side is that my writing ability developed, I believe, as a result of using my right hand for so long.

So now that I am using my correct hand, I realize how strange and creative I am and my life makes sense now. Florida to me is odd in that not much changes from day to day and yet weather can change in an instant and take as long or as little as it wants to destroy or give back. Creativity flows here.

Sometimes, I think I've lost whole years to being frustrated, sad, and sometimes, well most of the time obsessed with people and life. I felt like the princess in the Ivory Tower that needed to be saved from the evil queen or what ever evil person you can think of. I did that from my teens into my early 30s. And never did I think that it could be something as simple, yet complex as using the incorrect hand just to do daily tasks and doing extraordinary tasks in my art making to a painful point.

Now I think crafting and creating art is a joy. I love to play with fiber and thread, and I'm also into

sketching with pastels at the moment, in private. I look forward to sharing all of the creative things I've learned that have helped me get through my mental illness of bipolar disorder. My hope is that my pain will transcend the boundaries of my past and will become something I can work with and use in the healthiest way I can, and that you can do the same if you fear the past will hold you back forever. I can guarantee you that crafting and writing have been the two things that have saved me, in so many mysterious ways.