The woman who often checks out my groceries at the food coop was absent on a day she’s usually present, so I hoped she was okay. “I’m fine,” she said when I saw her next. “I’m trying to finish a project.” That was a while ago now and her last comment was, “It’s taking longer than I planned.”
I was reminded of my brother who once remarked, “By the time I finish a project, I know how to do it.” Exactly. No matter how well I strategize, I am always ambushed by my ignorance. Of course I can’t learn from my mistakes unless I make them, but it’s disruptive and embarrassing. There goes another deadline.
Tablecloths, for example. How hard could it be to make a cloth for the little table in my breakfast nook? Harder than I thought, in spite of all my thinking. Because I’m not much of a seamstress. Not any kind of a seamstress, actually. So, it was one stitch forward and two back, three back.
But finally it was done and doesn’t look too bad if you don’t look too closely. And I have to admit that the problem-solving was the best part. Sitting here at my little table, I wonder if life will prove to be the same kind of project.
“By the time I’m finished, I will know how to do it,” he said.
