Interview with L'Tanya Durante

L'Tanya Durante identifies herself as a "Soul stitcher, writer, crafter and craft archaeologist". Her on-line magazine, "Black Purl", recently celebrated it's second birthday. And this woman is brimming with ideas - just talking with L'Tanya gets ideas racing!

In so many ways. I tend to look at the world as a force pushing in one direction. I'm swimming upstream - going in the opposite direction...this movement or push is everywhere. TV commercials tell us what to eat and the music tells kids how to act and more specifically how to treat women. I'm trying to parent in a different direction and that gets really difficult.

My parenting - we have a son who's 11, and adopted a baby, who's 2 now.

My son was diagnosed with ADD and attends an afternoon program at a school that specializes in teaching children with learning differences and ADD. I homeschool him in the mornings so we have the best of both worlds.

I don't fit in to the 9 - 5 world. When I was younger I did it, and hated it! I don't want to do it - but I have thought: "What's wrong with me?"

I have an entrepreneurial spirit. I think out of the box. If I don't find what I want, I'll create it.

I'm a good starter, a master brainstormer, but I'm not as good with finishing.

My mind is always going - my husband says "There's no telling what's going around in your head."

L'Tanya shared a K. Cotterman quote with me that she'd read on a blog: "Water doesn't wash, it remembers." She tied the quote into our interview:

The whole fight is about remembering who you are - being authentic.

Society guides you in different ways - the hardest part is accepting oddities, eccentricities. This is a battle I waged for many years. I'm much happier knowing this - even if I'm not all the things society says I should be.

L'Tanya talked about accepting and strengthening her Square-Pegness through her magazine, where she celebrates different cultural contributions in needlecrafts, and which connects needlecraft artists (which includes many Square-Pegs, I'm sure).

I read alot of blogs - when I start to feel the tug of comparison I stop and focus on my vision. What I'm going to say is going to be different - I'm supposed to have a different voice.

I have to pull back from alot of my reading - limit my input. I have to limit my input many times so that I don't copy and so that I remain true to my vision for the magazine.

...what I really, really wanted to do was incorporate customs of the world - different patterns and crafts - bring them into our consciousness - one world mentality.

I see myself as an archaeologist - I find what I want - I dig for it and bring it back. People are so interesting! You can learn so much through their food - what they're thinking. You can reach out to the world.

L'Tanya also mentions that stopping to remember gratitude plays a part in maintaining her Square-Pegness...

I keep rolling - sometimes I have to stop and acknowledge. Stop and be still. In gratitude.

I started this two years ago - and 2 months later adopted a newborn! There were so many obstacles.

Sometimes I forget - I've done a lot. I've done amazing things within the parameters of my life.

The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, by David Allen

The Ominvore's Dilemna , by Michael Pollan

The Mom Inventors Handbook: How to Turn Your Great Idea into the Next Big Thing, by by Tamara Monosoff

I love the way I can brainstorm and not get attached to every idea I birth. I don't have to edit my ideas - I can generate and go go go. All ideas are good. I think there is a right time for every idea.

I would want to work for something like a think tank, if I ever did anything else. I love to tell people my ideas.

It sounds like L'Tanya is what Barbara Sher would call a "Scanner". She makes being a Scanner work for her - she's created work that includes many of her passions, so she doesn't have to choose.

L'Tanya spoke of being in her second year with her magazine - and loving the experience. She noted that, in the past, she hadn't stayed with anything that long. Embracing her creativity, and using it to weave her work around what she loves, makes L'Tanya the vibrant force that she is.

"Do what you love!" - you can hear in her voice, and see in what she writes, that she loves what she does.

I'm sure - and daily grow more and more aware - that everyone is creative. In our interview L'Tanya mentioned "People are probably more like us than they let themselves know. They may force themselves into the direction that the movement pushes - but they are creative - everybody's creative."

I'd say that getting in touch with your innate creativity - opening to it - would be one of the biggest things anyone could learn from L'Tanya.

L'Tanya used two metaphors when we spoke. She mentioned being a craft archaeologist, and she talked about swimming upstream - going against the current.

I love her images - ways of imagining herself! First, because thinking of yourself that way is so BIG, it gives strength. And secondly, because the pictures she chose are so deep and beautiful.

I picture an archaeologist as someone who loves what they do - who digs the stories out with the artifacts. L'Tanya is willing to dig for treasure - and then she's excited to show it to us. She does that in her magazine. Lucky us!

Then the swimming upstream metaphor. That really got me excited! I started to think about how we can all learn from L'Tanya - not to be afraid to swim against the current. And then my mind kept running with that. And I thought of undercurrent.

I got very excited and wrote to her about what her metaphor had opened up in my mind. I said "We are the undercurrent - the strong pull - unseen, but bloomin' powerful..I'm loving this idea." And she made me laugh when she wrote back: "I love the undercurrent thing. We are the undercurrent (only doesn't undercurrent take you under and drown you? LOL just a thought)."

I had to check that out - so I looked up undertow and found out that it's true - the undercurrent, undertow - can take you down and drown you. But only if you panic!

Apparently the thing is - if you relax and let the current take you without fighting it - you may be taken out from shore, but you'll be brought back in to the beach again. The key to not being taken under and drowned is to go with the flow of the undercurrent. To relax...it's about trust...You're not going far away, just far enough to get a new perspective - a new view.

So, a huge thing L'Tanya has shown me is how powerful it can be to have a metaphor for who I am and what I do. What do you think? What's YOUR metaphor?

Space will not allow me to list all the ideas L'Tanya mentioned when we talked - but I can tell you that talking with her, listening to her ideas, giving out some of mine - was so energizing - I felt more alive after talking with her.

Being around, talking to, reading works by people who, like L'Tanya - live BIG, who are passionate about their work and life - people who love ideas, who move against the "normal" current - is vital to me - like oxygen - and I'm going to make sure I don't go long without oxygen! How about you?