Older sista here. My one of the last (well, there are many unfinished ones are scattered around) project started with a torn vintage linen napkin/handkerchief with pretty embroidery. A kind lady gave it to me, saying “It has been in a drawer for years, one of my mom’s goodies but it is torn in places and I don’t know what to do with it, so it’s yours now.” Ah, I love such challenges! What to do? Patch it, obviously. But with what?  With some of those gorgeous fabric cut offs that a friend “saved” from the bin after a natural dyeing workshop. So, I started and when it is more or less finished, I shared its photos in our local waste-not group and jokingly commented that maybe this piece also needs an embroidered message such as “Mend Your Past.”

Indeed, our past is similar to this napkin. It was kept in a drawer for years as it is. Torn. Unfunctional. And if seen time to time during spring cleanings, perhaps feelings of regret are also attached to it: “Why do I keep this? Why don’t I do anything about it like mending or repurposing or giving it away?” But again, one cannot. Maybe, because it is too pretty to discard or too ruined to give away or it evokes memories, be it bitter or sweet. So, again, it stays where it is kept for years. As it is. Broken.

Repurposing such items makes me to think about the advantages of regression therapy. No, we don’t necessarily need to go to a past life in the medieval Europe to mend our past; even ten days or years ago is of the past anyway –especially if we have some unprocessed trauma or unexpressed feeling that got us stuck back then. It is always beneficial to deal with such “past” events to move forward. Then they become something else; as the blockages are processed and expressed, they are transformed into new energy to use for today and tomorrow –instead of being kept hidden, out of sight but not necessarily out of mind.

Just like this napkin. Now it has a new energy to become something else. It may turn into a pillow case or a tote bag. Whatever it will be turned into, it will not be a torn, old and dysfunctional napkin anymore.

It certainly deserves an embroidered message: Who Mends the Past, Steps into the Future.