NATURE AND LIFE
How I Celebrate My Sustainability Day
In response to Dancing Elephants prompt 49 of 52
In the US, the first Monday in September is Labor Day. Everybody enjoys the three-day weekend. My husband flew to New York City to spend time with his college friends.
Alone at home, I picked up two pairs of pants. Both of them had a tear on the left knee.
In the past few weeks, I have gone shopping, searching for new pairs. I couldn’t find anything I liked. Nothing was the right style, the right color, or the right texture. Maybe I was hoping to find exactly the same kind as the torn pants, which were already out of fashion a long time ago.
Alone at home, I picked up two pairs of pants. Both of them had a tear on the left knee.
I have no idea why only on the left knee, but the tear clearly indicated how much I liked to wear them.
Left alone at home on the Labor Day weekend, I picked up the torn pants, thread, and needle, and started stitching. Did I know how to do it? Not quite, but there were more than enough YouTube videos instructing where to start, what to do, and how to do it.
The only colors of the tread I had were black and white, so I chose black for my jeans and white for the other pair.
For several hours, I simply stitched. I zoomed in so close that I could see how each warp and weft were woven on top of each other. I even counted how many threads of weft I should skip before poking the needle for the next stitch.
The outcome may not look appealing, but I don’t care. With my labor of love, these pants have been resurrected. Instead of being trashed, both pants will continue to give me protection and comfort for several more years.
From now on, when everybody else celebrates Labor Day, I will celebrate my own Sustainability Day!
Many thanks to Dr. Preeti Singh, for her fun writing prompt.
Leah Lynch’s poem lifts me up. Thank you!
Originally published at https://akemisagawa.com on September 5, 2023.
