Going with the Flow-- About Lydia

Have you ever started off with an idea, and it ended up somewhere else?

That's what happened with Lydia....

Here's the story:

~

Since I began making Peony, I've wanted to make a little witch doll.  I loved the book called

Little Witch  by Anna Bennett, which I read over and over in grade school.  The story is about Minix, who is a little girl, and a witch, who doesn't like her mother much- who is not really a kind witch at all.  Minix wants to be a kind witch.  At the time, I really wanted to believe in magic and wanted to fly.  I imagined flying over all the fields and houses on my way home from school, which seemd to take forever on the bus, our's being the third to last stop.  So I have an affinity for Minix and her ability to fly.

~

I began designing my "little witch" doll with a definite result in mind, and most of the time, this doesn't work out.  When it comes to new designs, sometimes you just have to GO WITH THE FLOW.

~

I tried to tease my little witch out, trial and error and experimentation and poking and prodding and redesigning and finally just gave up and said:

"I've got to let this one breathe life into it's own, whatever it wants to become."

~

In the process, two little sisters were "born", which aren't very pretty, aren't exactly like I wanted them to be, but here they are, and I will not destroy them.  That would be like having an abortion, and that, I cannot do.  Their little lights will shine on my shelf and remind me that sometimes, I am not in charge of creation, even the creation of my own little witch doll.

~

So in comes Lydia.  I only named her yesterday.  It means "noble one", and has a greek and germanic origin.  So what does the name Lydia have to do with a Mexican holiday?  I'm not sure, but the holiday is about honoring the dead in your family, and that is what I want to do. 

~

I am honoring my ancestors, whose graves I cannot visit, but I know where they are.  I also feel their presence in my "playroom", whenever I am creating something new.

~

So, thank you for Lydia. 

And thank you for her sisters.

~

Amen.