Forcing, Feeling, and Twin-sized Sheets
Mobile:
Blue Moon Rising
On forcing
“I’m pushing as hard as I can,” panted fox.
“Perhaps,” rabbit replied, “that’s part of the problem?”
Thoughts while making...
When I was a kid, it wasn’t hard. Now, it often feels impossible.
Back then, inside matched outside, a perfect union, atman brahman, inhale exhale.
When I was a teen, I didn’t want to do it, but it was still easy.
I aligned like with like, bringing together one and the other, smoothing any wrinkles with an open hand.
It’s when I became an adult that the problems started.
I struggled. Sometimes mightily as I attempted to force the fit; knowing I was doing it wrong, but pushing and pulling, tugging and twisting - trying to make it go my way versus accepting the Way.
See, a kid-friendly twin bed is 39” x 75”. When it comes to putting on sheets, the lines are simple to see: the long side is the long side, the short side is the short side.
And, whether it was Star Wars or cheetahs, Smurfs or Holly Hobby, the print on the sheets clearly showed top from bottom, inside from out, upside from down.
A standard king is 76” x 80”. The lines here are far less clear, and it’s so easy to confuse long from short, side from side.
And without print or pattern, inside and out, top and bottom, upside and down, all become less truth than opinion, less fact than feeling.
When you’re making your bed, how many times have you gotten to that final corner and realized the sheet is not on correctly?
How many times has this happened … and yet you still tried to force that corner to fit? How do you *feel* in that moment?
When I make my bed now, I try to approach it from a place of experimentation, recognizing alignment as an ongoing process, allowing for an “extra” step to find fit as needed; replacing the emotion that can swell around supposed to be’s with a balance in what is.
When this customer and I collaborated on the color scheme of this mobile, we were matching colors from a gorgeous quilt his mom made that hangs beautifully in this phenomenal 1959 Charles DuBois home in Woodland Hills. And the fit is perfect!
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What was your favorite set of sheets as a kid or now?
