Kindred spirits.....

Sanna, my KTS4 pal, and I have been exchanging lovely e-mails. Across the water and back again. We talk about the weather (how very Canadian!), our jobs and careers, our ages, birthdays (mine was October 8th, Sanna!) and families, educational systems, coffee versus tea, of course knitting and handcrafts, guilds and craft festivals - whatever comes to mind!

We are well matched, Sanna and I, with a great deal in common it would seem from our correspondence - a truly wonderful surprise to find a kindred spirit given it was all arranged without much input from either one of us. We both filled out the same very basic on-line query as part of the KTS4 swap and the co-ordinators did the rest. How did they know we would match so well? Or was it just fate, a happy accident if you will?

Through the power of e-mail, the world has once again become a little smaller. Over the past two weeks, I find a wonderful e-mail popping up in my inbox. Sometimes it arrives late afternoon, right after lunch before the drudgery of the day finally sets in. For Sanna it is already late evening or the weekend when she writes, and when I check the Finnish web cams I can see how dark it is there already. After reading her letter, I will spend the next few days or so thinking about my reply – what I would like her to know about me next? What questions does her letter conjure up, what things could I tell her about daily life in Canada that might be different or even the same, that she might find interesting to know?

It is surprising to me just how much I enjoy knowing that Sanna has made some time in her busy day to write a little about her self and her daily life, just for me. I think it is very special for someone I have never met to make the time do this, for me, a complete stranger (since she knits she is not a complete stranger, of course!). And yet she has. Just so that I may get to know her and she me, even though we are far, far away with no immediate possibility of meeting. And just as simply as that, Sanna has become a friend (knitters always do, of course!).

Often I feel un-educated about women of the world at large. My life is like a slow stream and easy and largely un-exceptional and I know it (although some days I would vehemently argue that point!). I have traveled some, but mostly to the sunny Caribbean while on vacation with only limited inter-action with the local community, and so I know little about how women around the world get along in their daily life. For sure, I read the papers and watch the evening news, where I know about the horrible things that women and children endure around the globe, and can imagine about the even worse things not written or talked about, and I think about those women often in my heart and prayers and help where I think I can make a difference, like here .

But it is the women like myself, in more stable countries, working, raising our families, doing our 'thang', what ever that is, the daily grind if you will, that interests me. What do they think about? What are their days like? How do they go about fulfilling their dreams and aspirations? What are they doing to make their life different from mine? What makes it the same? What do they do to express their creativity, their individual personalities? What little things do they do that makes them happy during their every days? When I have the good fortune to be connected to someone like Sanna, even if only by mail, it makes me think of these questions. And it makes me think how women over the centuries have been doing just the same kinds of things to reach out and connect with each other regardless of the boundaries, obstacles, or distance.

Think of pen pals over the centuries getting to know each other only by mail, received months or sometimes years apart, or the various calls over the course of history (and even today) where women around the globe have banded together to support and encourage some far away cause. How about the craft magazine letters posted each month sharing ideas and inspiration in an effort to reach other like-minded women? And there’s our local knitting groups and guilds, a gaggle of happy voices enveloping newcomers and long standing members alike in the warmth of friendship and under the huge umbrella of our desire to be creative and share our passions. And the larger festivals and fairs where hundreds and hundreds of women gather to learn, try new things, share their expertise, and trade their secrets to a passionate life. And now there is the ever-expanding Internet – blogs, websites, e-mail - each adding its own voice to how women connect in the new millennium.

Wherever we go, women feel the pull to connect with other women. It’s in our nature. It’s seems it’s the way we communicate, the way we are hard wired. The desire to be connected fills us and fulfills us, the sharing, and passing on of ideas and inspiration, talents and skills, passion and knowledge. The knowledge that our ideas will go from women to women, old to young, young to old, and be altered and adapted to suit each individual does not scare us or nor do we feel the need to keep our extraordinary ideas all to ourselves. Rather we actively search to reach out to connect and share and teach, and in return we receive back more ideas and inspirations and encouragement to further grow our passion for expanding and exploring our creativity.

I cannot tell you how much I get from on-going daily exchanges with my girlfriends, my knitting buddies, my on-line pals, my crafting groups. They enrich my life beyond description. Without all these minute connections each day, my daily life would be plain Jane and white bread, an empty notebook and a TV set. Instead it is a huge can’t–put-it-down novel, richly illustrated in bright colors, with captivating characters and filled with new thoughts and ideas to consider, accompanied by yummy chocolate and fine wine! I don’t need to rely on artificial entertainment to amuse or inspire me (ok – a few craft and décor shows, Prison Break and 24 excepted! I’m only human, people!). I don’t need them or usually have the time for mind-numbing drama. I have real people to talk to, places to go, and things to see. All done by amazing women spending their energies and talents to beautify and personalize their surroundings and for the people they care about. And they willingly share it with me so I can do the same!

How lucky am I to live in a world of women that gives me all that and so very much more!

Knit on……..

kate