Once when visiting a girl's high school I came upon a student art work in the foyer. Two giant black and white clad nuns were seen advancing towards a small uniform clad student. The title of the work was "The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvellously".
I have since discovered that the interwebs believes that Henry Kissinger said this.
The phrase has stuck with me since I saw that picture.
Many times we have too many choices in our lives, and those choices weigh down the decision making process. If you have no alternatives, you just make the best of it. Usually it works out.
This phrase is the reason I have been gradually clearing out my wardrobe of clothes I don't wear often, inspired by Courtney Carver's Project 33 . I haven't got to 33 items to wear in 3 months yet, but my recent sweep through my clothes has got the number down to the lowest it has been in years. The first week has felt really good, even though I am a bit astonished that we are now moving into autumn and I have only 3 long sleeved Tshirts! Still, "The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvellously", so I either wear one of them or I wear a short sleeved shirt and a wrap/cardigan/shirt to make up the difference.
The same thing was in force when I was pushing to finish the Playground Days quilt for my grand daughter. I was doing pretty simple quilting -so I thought, but right in the middle was a section which somehow got twisty and pleated!!!!!
It took me 24 hours to agree that I had to unpick the quilting. It took 24 hours to do so. The absence of alternatives convinced me that it was the only option! I couldn't be happy with it as it was, so there was nothing else for it.
So now I am on to the binding and I trust that I will have a finished quilt to present to the little lady on their quick visit here next Monday!
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