“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” -― Stephen King

I had complained to my mom that my sister had a towel with little girls on it and I didn’t.  Mom set out to correct that. The result is the cute towel above.

I am very proud of my mom.  She has always been a hard-worker, honest and generous to a fault.  She is the type of person that, given the opportunity, could have been anything she wanted. 

Instead, she had to start working very early, at the age of 7.  Yes, 7!!  She only went to third grade in school, but is smarter than most graduates that I know. It was a sad childhood.  A poor family, 14 kids, she was the baby.  Her father died when she was 4 years old.  She says that when he died she lost her protector.  She adored him. 

Eventually I will write more about her life.  This post is about her beautiful macramé towels. 

Mom will be 87 years old in a couple of months.  She has been always very active, working and doing her crafts.  She hasn’t done much lately because of her issues with her hip.  She has been in a lot pain, so she spends a lot time resting now. 

She has always done knitting and crocheting. At the age of 70 she took a few classes and started oil painting.  My walls are covered with her paintings. I am not sure if I have posted them here before, but I will make sure to post them.

Then, she taught herself how to do macramé by reading some craft magazines.   Macramé is a craft that is done by knotting yarn, and other similar material.   It was a dying art that has become popular again.  It requires patience, precision and persistence.

It has taken her weeks to remind herself how to do the macramé knots for little girls, but she did it!  I admire her constant wanting to learn, relearning and challenging herself. Be it a new recipe, a new macramé knot, or a new painting.  

Below are some of the towels that she has made in the past for my sister and I.  She has made dozens more as gifts to friends.  She also has taught a few people how to do it.  Not everyone that she tried to teach was able to learn, but a couple are doing it well.

My mom’s life now is very different from her childhood.  My parents are spoiled by my siblings and I.  We try to make them happy, inasmuch as we can do that.

“Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age.” ― Aristotle

“The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it. ”  ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.” ― Émile Zola

“According to this law [the law of Dharma], you have a unique talent and a unique way of expressing it. There is something that you can do better than anyone else in the whole world–and for every unique talent and unique expression of that talent, there are also unique needs. When these needs are matched with the creative expression of your talent, that is the spark that creates affluence. Expressing your talents to fulfill needs creates unlimited wealth and abundance.” ― Deepak Chopra