Word for today: Seamstress When we decided to get married in what is now the former Yugoslavian country of Serbia, I bought a very expensive bridal gown to take with me for the wedding. Since the travel plans were changed once or twice due to the political situation there at the time, I did not get the dress altered before I took it on the plane. Somewhere in my head I had convinced myself that it would fit, and even if it was a little too big I could manage the issue. Imagine my surprise when I took the dress out of the box in the middle of my mother in law’s living room only to find that it did not fit. But it was not too big. It was too tight around the bodice. Yikes. I sucked in my chubby bits as much as I could and still, we could not zip it up. I wiggled, jiggled and stretched to try and somehow get the thing to close in back, but the harder I tried the worse it became. Nick was not in the room, so I was there with his sister, mother and a neighbor’s wife while they pooh poohed the situation in a foreign language. What I wanted to do was burst out crying but managed to control the urge as I bit my bottom lip to keep it from trembling. I stood there, my back to all of them trying to keep the wild panic at bay. Even if I fasted for the entire time between that moment and the wedding I was not going to get into that dress. I had no idea what I was going to do. I put my clothes back on and went out into the kitchen to give Nick the bad news. Too much pre-wedding celebratory food and drink had put be in a literal bind. The entourage of women speaking an unknown language followed me, and Nick began the process of trying to interpret for me what they were conversing about. To their credit no one was giggling. They were taking my conundrum in hushed tones and collective head scratching. Then suddenly his mothers head pulled up, a lightbulb moment had arrived. She looked at Nick and said “Slavka”. Then they all hustled off into town leaving me there completely clueless. Within half an hour a tall solid looking woman entered the house. I was summoned back into the living room and in a game of charades was told to put the dress back on again. The room became eerily quiet as Slavka took in the full range of the task that was before her. It takes a fearless soul to attempt the alteration of a couture wedding dress two days before the biggest wedding the village has ever seen. But Slavka is confident in her mad sewing skills. She knew that by taking a part of the material from the back of the dress and making two darted inserts in the back bodice just below the sleeves on either side it will work. Collectively all of the women heave a huge sigh of relief. Nick tells me the good news and asks me to watch the food and drink intake until the big event comes to pass so that we don’t have a bigger problem the day of the wedding. I agree. I’d have agreed to liposuction without anesthesia at that moment to be honest. Thankfully the village’s only professional seamstress - Nick’s Aunt Slavka- was going to fix everything. And she did- two days later the dress fit me like a glove. Seamstresses and tailors take things apart and reconstruct them in a better way. Their jobs are to make things fit. I am amazed by the eyes they have for alignment, how they see flaws and silently correct them without a second thought. They have an eye for detail that I do not possess, no work is too meticulous or repetitive in nature to be boring. They understand that small enhancements make huge differences in an end product. They can literally make something from nothing. They can rescue as easily as they create. I personally think of them as visionary in that they can see a finished idea in their heads before they ever cut a single piece of fabric. I’ve been so incredibly lucky in my life to have had many kinds of seamstresses come to my aid. I hope I’ve been one myself once or twice, metaphorically speaking. I’m not handy with anything like a needle and thread, but I can be a source of help in other ways. If someone came to me with a wedding dress to fix in two days I’d scream and run from the building. But if they told me their caterer quit and they have 150 guests to feed I could do that with confidence. My skill set is different, but no less valid. The good news for me is that anyone who knows me would not dream of asking me for the sewing favor. But they would not hesitate to ask for the cooking help. I would not hesitate to agree. I know humility is a big part of the Christian ideal. We should not boast about our talents, not become an obnoxious bore telling everyone how great we are at doing something. But sometimes I think we’ve gotten the idea that confidence in our skills is akin to a lack of humility. I don’t know about you, but when I needed to have my knee replaced earlier this year, I wanted a confident surgeon who knew he could do it, never doubting his gifts to help heal me. Jesus was supremely confident in his knowledge of Divine love and mission. To hide your light under a basket is never what any of us are called to do. Quite the opposite. We all have a sense of mission, no gift in which we are confident should be hidden. If you are good at gifting kind words, do so with abandon. If you can fix cars, get out your tools. If you can mend broken hearts, reach out in love and help stitch up the seams that have been split and are weeping. No given talent is too small in the world of God’s creation. Do not underestimate your ability to be someone’s seamstress. The world needs you, it needs us all to contribute all we are to the common good. A year later we retuned for vacation. We drove up the side of the mountain to visit Slavka and Dragomir for an afternoon. While we were there I asked her if she wanted anything from the states. She told me in all seriousness that what she really wanted was the sweater I was wearing. Nick thought her request incredibly rude, but I told him I was happy to give it to her the following day when I was no longer wearing it, it was the very least I owed her. Anyone who can save me 2 days from my wedding day can have the literal shirt off my back for the asking.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 13:44:10 +0000
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