I definitely notice how much I rely on familiar rituals when things change in my life. Emily and I have been taking care of a little dog named Rosie for the last year. Her family went overseas on a research fellowship and they couldn’t take her along. We haven’t had a dog since Cassy died in 2013 and after taking care of her for a few days and being completely charmed by her adorableness, we agreed to take her for the year. She needed a house without other pets or kids and we definitely qualified.
Rosie’s family returned last weekend and she went home to them this week. It was so hard to let her go, but seeing her absolute overwhelming joy at seeing them again made it worth it. She was beside herself when she realized who was in front of her. I do wonder what dogs think when their lives change. She took a few months to really blossom with us but I hope she goes right back to her old life now that she is home again.
Today her bed is gone along with the blanket covering the chair where she perched to watch out the front window. I don’t have to let her outside or give her breakfast and when we go camping this month, I won’t wake up to find she has decided to sleep on my pillow in the night. She won’t come and put her little paws on my leg when I forget to give her dinner and she won’t need cuddling when there is a thunderstorm coming. The little rituals that became part of my life over the last year are gone in a day and that just underlines how much I rely on them for comfort. Perhaps it also underlines the importance of having rituals in the first place.
Rosie relaxing in her camp chair while I wove a tapestry about her.
Sketch tapestry about Rosie
I’ve been doing some sketch tapestry pieces about my summer the last few months. In part for the workshop I’m teaching called Summer of Tapestry and in part just because I do it every summer! The practice of taking time to notice things around me and weave small simple tapestries about an experience or place slows me down, helps me experience a place more fully, and helps me remember it later because I spent an hour or two weaving about it.
While camping a few weeks ago, I was watching Rosie nap in her own camp chair and thinking about her going back to her family soon. I was doing some nature journaling that day of the flowers around our campsite and I had my watercolors out. I painted a palette about Rosie’s personality and then sketched a tiny tapestry design which I hoped would capture her personality for me.
My journal page for Rosie’s tapestry
She loves to watch for small animals so I included the back of her head sketched from a moment she was watching a chipmunk, likely for hours. I made a curved line to indicate her love of following the circuitous scent of bunnies on our evening walks. I used handspun for the tapestry background in colors that I thought reflected her laid-back sweet nature along with her black coat and sassy insistence on chasing bunnies at any opportunity.
The Year of Rosie. Handspun weft, cotton warp, Fringeless four-selvedge warp. 2 x 3 inches
I know Rosie will come to visit us again for shorter amounts of time. In the meantime, I’m headed out to weave about other things that matter to me. I will likely notice the change in my routine with Rosie gone for quite a few more weeks and then I’ll have new routines to take their place. I’ll always wish Rosie could live with us all the time, but she belongs with her family and one day soon we’ll have our own dog again.
Rosie in the Snowy Range, Wyoming