A reminder to embrace partial solutions.

Don’t you love it when you stumble upon the inspiration for your next creative project? I was watching Instastories — my frequent distraction go to– when I saw a fellow author and creative showing the fingerless gloves she was making for when she is writing. I loved the idea and she shared the pattern with me after I told her about my last disastrous attempt at fingerless gloves. I had my next crochet project and the motivation to put down my phone and pick up my hook.

The first need? Suitable yarn. My craft cupboard is not short on yarn! I have picked up random balls from different people giving them away and bought some intended for projects that were never finished or maybe never even started. I confidently started searching and realised quickly that bulky yarn was scarce in my collection. I had almost given up hope when I came across a bag with a partial blanket in mint green and soft yellow. A baby blanket that I was making for my daughter before she was born. She is now seven years old! The yarn intended for this blanket was the perfect type for the gloves but not in colours that I generally gravitate towards.

I was faced with a choice– either I use the partial solution of this yarn now or wait a week until I can get to the shop to get the exact one I would want. While there can be something valuable in delayed gratification and holding out for what is best, I am learning that imperfect solutions allow us to move ahead and thrive right now. This is what is needed far more often in life. I am letting go of the need for perfection that holds me back in so many areas.

Life is full of partial solutions—where there’s a way to get a need met, and it might not be the ideal way, but it’s a way that works.

Partial solutions apply to almost every area of life, from decorating our home, to getting dressed in the morning, to carving out a career for ourselves, to electing a politician.

Tsh Oxenreider https://theartofsimple.net/makingfriends/

I chose the partial solution of the mint green yarn. I was able to make the right hand glove that evening. The left hand one is still a work in progress waiting for my next down time block. There is something so satisfying about watching something useful and beautiful take shape in your hands. If I had held out for the perfect option, I could have missed out on this rest and delight.

What areas of your life could use a partial solution today? What choice have you been putting off because you can’t find the perfect option? Where do you need to let go of perfection and choose progress? Such a simple moment as choosing yarn for a crochet project has reminded me to ask myself these questions once more. Maybe this can be a reminder for you too.