Is making a wreath simply for your door?

After a long time in afternoon traffic leaving the city, I pull off the winding country road and enter another world.

I follow the white lights up the hill and come upon the apple orchard.

The first thing I see is the fire at the far end, it’s for the people enjoying the sauna and cold plunge. I can see it, but do not hear a sound.

All of a sudden I notice the quiet- it’s in sharp contrast to the city sounds and the podcast I am focussing on for my entrepreneurial learning.

I walk across the uneven ground in my clogs towards the barn.

I’m so grateful to come here ostensibly to teach a group of 20 or more people to make their wreath– many for the first time.

I enter the cold barn, the heat will be turned on soon, see the lights; elves have laid out the wreath frames, snips and wire on each table.

Along the length of the room are tables holding piles of different greens, branches, hydrangea, holly and other goodies.

I gather a few pieces from the tables, with my red snippers I brought from home, for my demo at the beginning of class.

The music is on, and the lovely person who felt a calling to be here is heating up the apple cider made earlier in the year with apples that are from trees planted here in the 1800’s. She always makes me feel welcome here.

The door opens and Melanie, the co-owner of this lavender farm, pushes a wheelbarrow in carrying more fun stuff to play with – she has emerged from the darkness with a smile -happy to generously share what she is proud to have grown.

Just as all those years ago when I started the preschool program at Science World (which is still running 26 years on), the arrangement is that I “just” come to teach– I don’t need to find any of the materials. A practical and welcome change when I am so busy finding materials and doing all the preparations for all the workshops that I do outside on my urban flower farm– designed to be quite a different experience.

I know that people have signed up to come with friends to make a wreath for their door.

That is the visible outcome of our 2 hours together in this new build barn with it’s high ceilings and wide beams.

Under the giant Christmas tree, I know something else is going on here….and as all the young people on IG say..” and I’m here for it”…..

After I have met people as they arrive and asked them if they have made a wreath before or welcome them back from last year, I always say: these are natural materials, they are beautiful, you cannot make them “not beautiful”.

And then I talk about how we are lucky to be here in this beautiful place together and that they have come with friends and family to enjoy this time – at the end they will have a wreath. It will be uniquely theirs.

One of the thrills for me in doing creative sessions is to get to observe what people make with the same materials to start and how what they make is always unique and beautiful.

This week, as I said “Beautiful!” as I approached a table – this guest said— “You say that to everybody”.

I’m glad she said it out loud so I could respond. I say it to everybody because I believe it!

Beauty is not finite.

In one of many sessions this year in both places, I was asked as I came around to offer help, opinions, troubleshooting — could I rank her wreath from 1-10?

I said that there was no such thing.

The reason that she is here is not to make a wreath.

The reason that she is here is to have an experience working with her hands, in the company of the friends and family she came with and to have a creative experience letting these natural materials guide her.

I explained that in creativity there is no such thing as comparison.

It is what she thinks is beautiful.

The benefits of making with your hands are that your nervous system settles, happy hormones are released in your body and your body doesn’t care what you are making.

That’s why it doesn’t matter what your wreath looks like – your body doesn’t care!

I’m so glad that she asked me – and I’m so glad with my answer because she is going to be teaching wreath making in a setting where people are getting back on their feet.

As I go around to each table, it is fascinating what people will ask and what they will tell me.

I feel honoured at what people will share.

One woman who had arrived with a group of friends shared that her friends had all pitched in to buy her the ticket to come to celebrate her birthday– because one year ago -to the day- on a milestone birthday she had started radiation.

Such a gift to me that she shared that lovely reminder of why her beautiful wreath was only an outcome of what was really going on— a celebration both for and of her. And of friendships with other lovely women.

Wreath season, like the symbolism of the wreath itself, comes around again each year and like all mastery of a skill, one can go deeper into the learning each time.

After a lifetime of making wreaths in all seasons and with lots of different natural materials, I feel confident in the way that I can teach others the method that I have figured out works best for me.

Many learners have told me that it makes sense to them. Sometimes after they qualify it with the “because I’m not creative”.

An untrue statement after I point to the beautiful wreath in front of them that they just made. Evidence to the contrary. Undenaible proof that creativity lives here.

At this stage in my wreath making journey, my deeper learning is more about what making a wreath means for the people who make them.

What it changes inside them.

How it can remind them in this season of busyness what it feels like to take a little time to be and feel the benefits of being creative.

It’s one of the many reasons that I love wreath season so much.