Ode to Dahlia

AKA Dahlia

 On this eve of Dubose I am excited for the retreat to begin. This year it's more of a retreat than a class. Learning happens, and it will always happen. Sometimes we just need time to birth our ideas and practice our skills, maybe with the support of friends. Friends who offer suggestions, help with techniques or problems, friends who simply hold space for one another to keep us from going off and doing something else with our time, something that keeps us from realizing our dreams, our creations. I know that every time I have "taught" a class I have learned countless things in return. So many have come to my classes who are amazing fiber artists in their own right...people whose class I should be taking. This always honors me no end. But it also makes me wonder why they are taking my class. I have come to believe that it's not so much what I teach, but how. I'm a facilitator. I hold space. I create an atmosphere in which people feel free to express themselves, feel free to succeed, feel free to fail, and best, feel free to try.

So on this eve of Dubose, since I feel so exuberant, I'd like to share something that gives me great joy. Delilah belongs to our neighbor to the north. We call her Dahlia because she is a flower. She comes to visit every day and we love her visits, look forward to them, but we are very glad she isn't our dog. Why? She is beautiful, she looks like she is strutting around in a chiffon gown, but she smells like a carniverous plant. So much so that we have decided she should have her own line of parfum. It's called "AKA Dahlia". Her signature scent is a complex blend of all imaginable and unimaginable smells. Others include Eau d' dead4days, Just Ripe, and her newest, Dung!, (also in roll-on). If I leave my recliner unattended, I'm liable to find her ensconced. All I can say is, I'm glad it's leather.

Dahlia ensconced