Flow is the mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energised focus, full involvement and enjoyment in the process of the activity.
Whilst working in care homes I was struck by how a restless distracted woman found flow in stitching. From initially being very agitated, she became completely absorbed and after two hours she said "well that was a worthwhile five minutes!"
It might appear that older people are sometimes ‘going nowhere and doing nothing’, but their lives are full of memories, sometimes fragmented and disjointed but rich in texture. In contrast, my days are spent rushing from place to place trying to cram in more and more. I wanted to find those still moments of going nowhere and doing nothing, moments of flow, so I began to collect sticks and driftwood and weave different materials around the sticks to create memories. Sometimes it was a tourist leaflet, a map of somewhere new, sometimes children’ s paintings and often materials from my studio.
These small memories are now being incorporated into baskets, circles and wall hangings. They help me create still moments in my hectic days.