Tink and Wink traveled down to Texas as the guest artists here, at Laity Lodge, where Tink went to summer camp way back in the 1st millenium.

We love it there, deep in the lush canyon, the Frio River a rich glassy turquiose and jade, the air redolent with cedar, sage, and rosemary…

The guest speaker was Arthur Boers, author of The Way is Made by Walking. His book is about his experience walking the 500 mile Santiago de Compostela trail in Spain. Wink has a big old fat crush on him… Tink too. He spoke about the concept of Focal Practice.

I don’t want to lose you here with a dense philosophical definition, but here is a dense philosophical definition by philosopher Albert Borgmann:

A focal thing is something that has a commanding presence, engages your body and mind, and engages you with others. Focal things and the kinds of engagements they foster have the power to center your life, and to arrange all other things around this center in an orderly way because you know what’s important and what’s not. A focal practice results from committed engagement with the focal thing.

Like playing an instrument, eating together, hiking, running, baking, writing… and fiber arts, of course. We helped quite a few folks learn to focus on yarn… and exemplified how knitting can actually improve one’s ability to focus while attending lectures and meetings!

There were lively discussions about technology and how it can diminish focal practice. Or not.

How can we use technology to enhance focal practice? Laurie gives an example of how technology can be integrated into her focal practice. She has developed an i-phone app for fiber artists.

By wrapping her yarn around her i-phone, she makes a perfect pom-pom, or i-pom.

Nice integration, Laurie. I can see the book: “i-knits, i-phones, and i-poms“.

PS I think a MacBook would make some great fringe…

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