After wonderful 4 days in Phoenix for I am back to PA and settled. Everything w

After wonderful 4 days in Phoenix for I am back to PA and settled. Everything will be back to normal soon. I appreciate your understanding & patience for orders & emails. And, the huge & big thanks to @themqg for having me there. I sincerely respect them for how to organize & manage the event. I just wish that I could manage my time/energy better to meet more people there.
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One of the challenges would be “mask mandate” in workshops. Again, I sincerely respect their decision, and I followed it throughout the event. I practiced how to keep my “endless talks” for 6 hours before, and I believe it went well. One thing I didn’t prepare myself for was the difficulty of “reading” the students’ faces. After 3 days of workshop, I barely could walk for the Show, and I didn’t even have a moment to talk online… I used all of my energy to “sense it”, which I usually am good at.
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In my workshop, most of the students go through frustration: sometimes for an hour, sometimes for throughout the workshop. It can be a serious one, not like “oh, I don’t like it”, more like “Why cannot do it?” type of frustration. My job is to sense it and offer help, and it took extra (3x more) energy to sense their feeling in these classes. I hope that everyone had a good time there. I confirmed many faces (eyes) change from “What the…?” to “Ah, not so difficult” in 5~10 hours. I feel this is my mission, and I will keep sharing the Sashiko we have been practicing.
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家に帰るまでが遠足で、しっかり戻ってきました。日常に戻ります。それにしても、本当に心底疲れました。近年経験したことがない程の疲れ。何が違うのだろうかと振り返ると、それは「マスク（着用義務）」だったなと思うのです。カメラで常に皆様の手元を確認できるオンラインクラスと違いワークショップでは、各々の感じている不安や葛藤、苛立ち等を目と口の動きを使って判断し、適宜手を差し伸べに行きます。今回は、その口の部分が見えず、目と微妙な表情の動きで感情を判断し、誰もおいていかないワークショップを目指しました。下手したら第六感使った方が良いかも……というくらいのキツさでした。新しい日常の中で、これは今後の課題です。一人でも多くの方に刺し子を、運針を楽しんで頂けますように。また に呼んで頂けますように。精進を続けます。
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2022-02-21 16:46:17

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