Tag: Girls Scout

Jenny Winder

I felt like I could open up and talk about big things in my heart that felt tender and hard to share.

A gift for making people feel welcome and included

There’s not a specific memory, just more of a feeling that stands out. Your mom definitely has a gift for making people feel welcome and included. I was real late to the game with Girl Scouts but I always felt welcome with the Flamingos and especially at your house.

She edited my personal statements for college and gave great feedback but even more than that really helped me feel seen and like I was capable. I’ve been thinking of you, Shante and Nyasha a lot the last few days.

A day that stands out is when we all went to Seattle back before our junior year. I found a couple pictures of her. We were calling out the name of alcoholic drinks to point out cute boys to each other and I remember her good natured comments as each of our types were revealed.

I don’t remember anything specific, but she has a distinct cadence and laugh that always made me smile. I felt like I could open up and talk about big things in my heart that felt tender and hard to share. I have a letter I’ll need to pull out sometime and send you a picture of.

140. Zen and the Art of Tie Dye

We have dyed with Scouts, with 4H, with friends and with people we did not know. Tiny socks, enormous bed sheets, and everything in between. It is the reason that the adult Girl Scouts have been gifted tie dye baby blankets and T’s. The memory. The camaraderie. The legacy

A magnificent form of dying, tie dyeing, entered our lives with Christine.  I can’t remember the year or the reason.  She brought her equipment, and we learned the process.  Hundreds of items, perhaps more than a thousand, have emerged with elaborate color over the past two decades.  

We have dyed with Scouts, with 4H, with friends and with people we did not know.  Tiny socks, enormous bed sheets, and everything in between.  It is the reason that the adult Girl Scouts have been gifted tie dye baby blankets and T’s.  The memory.  The camaraderie.  The legacy.

The five storage tubs are not hauled out of the shed or garage often, mostly because of the chaos of clean up.  When it does come out, it’s a lengthy process that usually spans a couple of months.  

The full experience can be accomplished in 24 hours.  It doesn’t take long to dye a shirt.  We just have different people who want to pop in for the dye.  And I always have lofty goals that I NEVER reach, just accepted as par for the course.  The materials wait, spread over whatever surfaces function.

Today, Shante and Mark came over with a handful of shirts and some pillow cases.  New for 2020, Dharma Trading Company has dye-able cloth masks, of course.  So they did a couple of those too.  Grownup tie dye requires some sewing, some planning, a lot of patterns and methods beyond the rubber band circle!   Mark’s quote, “I don’t remember this being so technical.” 

This year is technical.  It is requiring every ounce of our patience, an elaborate skill set, and colorful approaches we have never used before.  We are living the lines and colors of the most complex mandala.  And each of us has a role that is required in the intricacy of the whole.  Like opening the tie dye work in the rinse out process, we are waiting to see the beauty in the end result.