in control...

i started making this maneki neko 2 weeks back, taking my own sweet time hooking it while watching my drama series and HBO series. hehe...

a 'good luck' cat clutching a golden salmon under her arms...

this is for my colleague, Lady Loretta who will be leaving the company to set up a company of her own. at first, i didn't know what to make for her when it suddenly struck me that a maneki neko would be the perfect gift for her new company!

so as not to bore everyone with a lengthy explanation of a maneki neko, click here to read more about it. and you can hop on over to my craft page to read about my crocheting process in this project.

in this post, i want to talk about being conscious of our emotions. but what has it got to do with the maneki neko, you ask?

ok ok, i'm getting there... 2 days ago, while lunching with a few of my colleagues (minus Lady Loretta), one girl, Dancing Daphne suddenly commented that she thinks Lady Loretta has removed us from her facebook friends list. not only that, she may have even blocked us, because Dancing Daphne was not able to even search for her name!

upon hearing this, all of us were quite shocked. i would say the group of us are pretty close, not merely colleagues. so we had no qualms in adding each other into our facebook and getting a glimpse into our personal lives. so this sudden 'she don't friend us anymore' development came as a surprise to everyone. the general reaction: upset.

that lunch hour, while the rest of my colleagues were discussing the reasons for Lady Loretta's action, i was quietly mulling over my half-finished maneki neko at home. is this kind of friend worthy of my effort to hand-make a gift for? after all, she "don't friend me anymore"...

then that night, i was still contemplating if i should finish this project, when i suddenly remembered the reason i started this project - it's a sincere wish for a friend in her future undertakings. it is something i want to give her. just that, and shouldn't have to do with anything else. and i'm sure she has her own valid reason for her actions...

having this in clear perspective, i continued to hook away happily, putting in good and positive thoughts into every stitch! :)

and it felt so good! sure, we humans have emotions that we can't control. that's why buddhism teaches us about the 10 worlds. but to be conscious of what we are feeling and then to seek the reason why are we feeling it, we get to choose how we react to these emotions.

ah, i feel so enlightened! :D

p/s: Lady Loretta was very happy when she saw the gift. she said since she saw all the photos of my handcraft in my facebook album, she's been been wanting one. but she's malu (malay for 'shy') to ask me to make for her. and seeing her happy smile and feeling her hug, i'm really glad of my timely epiphany! :)