Coat of Shoulds

I’ve lived most of my life ruled by what I thought I should be doing to be a good girl, a good sister, a good daughter, a good wife, a good mother, or a good friend. If ever there was a conflict between my own desires and what I thought I should do, the ‘should’ won.
 
As I saw how much this robbed me of my freedom and my life, and how pervasive and insidious it was, I was simultaneously working to shed the ‘should’ and learn to honor myself and choose ME.
 
Coat of Shoulds
$800
4.25 x 8 x 7” as shown, 65 inches fully extended
Embroidered poem on hand dyed cotton, bound on an antique spool
Hand stitching is a meditative process and over an extended period of time it allowed me to contemplate and integrate the new message with each stitch. I realized when I’m not ruled by ‘should’, a whole world of possibility opens up. I created this spool book not only for my own healing, but also to share the power of this message with others.
 
This spool book is hand stitched on hand dyed fabric on an antique bobbin. It contains the poem Yet Another Layer by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.
 
 
 
Yet Another Layer by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Steeping so long
in this coat of should
I forgot it was on
’til, slipping out by accident,
I see it hanging separate
while I stand bare
and strangely new,
wondering what this naked
soul can do.