A Remedy for Restlessness

I can't even remember the last time I dusted the shelves in the corner of my art room but I was so restless this morning. I couldn't even sit still to drink my tea and stitch a little bit. I glanced at the collage on my desk, put on an art video, tried to organize paperwork, but couldn't concentrate on anything. I hate when that happens. Restlessness, agitation, much different from anxiety and hard to put my finger on what my mind and body feel. But when I feel this way, I inevitably clean something. This morning it was the shelves in the corner of the art room. An altar, a box of charms, old books, little journals, trinket trays, sentimental knick-knacks - a royal pain in the ass to dust because a million tiny things live on the shelves and they have to be taken down. But in the end it was what I needed. A million tiny things that offered comfort and ease and calmed my restless mind and body. This one little memory, a folded paper sculpture, a sweet little specimen of kinetic origami. It fits perfectly in this little metal box. Folded by my daughter. It makes my heart happy. The tiny little girl who has loved mathematics since she was two years old. When she was four I taught her how to fold a paper fortune teller. She made them by the dozen. When she was six she learned how to fold intricate paper flexagons and Jacob's Ladder paper chains and I would find them all over the house - on tables, floors, in her bed, in MY bed, everywhere! At Christmas, Santa brought her an Origami-a-Day Calendar and so for 365 days a colorful creation would unfold - well, fold that is. And then suddenly the obsession ended. I saved some of those little folded memories, stored them in a box with her other schoolwork and artwork. Fast forward ten years. She is graduating from college and my husband and I are helping her pack up and move out of her dorm room in Chicago. I am sweeping the floor and lo and behold, this paper sphere appears from underneath the bed. I hold it up and am amazed at the intricacy of the folding. I save it from the trash and place it with her things. The rest of the day is hectic and busy and I forget about the folded paper. The three of us stop at our hotel room to change and then go out for a nice dinner with her and her friend. We drop them off after dinner for their last night at college and my husband and I head back to the hotel room and I find her folded creation sitting prettily on my pillow. Two of my greatest treasures - the sphere and the girl.