The Dulcimer Weekend
I did the Albany Shaker Craft Show this weekend and
the highlight for me was the dulcimer. A
lovely lady (I did not catch her name) played the dulcimer most of the weekend
and the sweet peaceful sounds of Celtic music filled the meeting hall and made
it quite easy to forget that this was a weekend that was not necessarily
conducive for a craft show. It was the
early fall equivalent of a blizzard with heavy winds, heavy rain, and an overly
gloomy weather prediction. Although I
must say as I was driving home on Saturday, it was ominous enough for me to
take a detour from my hour long drive.
But then there was the dulcimer and its peaceful
melodic Celtic music to keep me company while I spent the 2 days very creatively
and productively embroidering. The
volunteers were great as always, the customers were very appreciative, the
compliments were plentiful, the crafters were a sisterhood (and a few brothers
too) of creativity. It was really a very
lovely peaceful weekend as long as you didn’t get too caught up in how much
money you were making. Hopefully for all
of us artists all along the East Coast this was one weekend out of a beautiful
fall and holiday season.
I was reminded so many times of just how little it takes
to find contentment in life and art. If
you are able to keep your mind and hands busy and find a bunch of little treasures
to brighten up the day you can make even an ominous forecast and a bunch of
heavy winds on Saturday disappear into a beautiful Sunday.
I am also really thankful for the kind words and
compliments of many of the people who I was lucky enough to meet or greet this
weekend. During the very hard last few
months it was easy to believe that I was alone on an island with friends all around
but no way to reach them. This weekend
it was easy to see that I am surrounded by old friends and new friends with
nothing but possibilities in the future.
I was heartened by the woman with the lovely smile, who was smiling
because she loved my work(that was a good moment) to the lovely woman who
couldn’t decide between the scroll heart or the snowflake heart and thankfully
bought them both it was a wonderful weekend to be an artist.
So great thanks to all my fellow artists, the lovely
dulcimer player who will be playing most Saturdays in and around Thanksgiving
at the Albany Shaker Christmas show, and the lovely people who made my oh so
windy and oh so ominous weekend forecast bright and sunny.
Perhaps one of these days I will embroider a
dulcimer in honor of this weekend!
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