I haven't posted for the past two days, mainly because my thumbs were so sore. I took a beading class Thursday night and basically shish-kebobed my fingers on 22-gauge sterling silver wire as I learned how to make loops.

My first loop was not very...well...loopy. It looked like a Crash Test Dummy loop that had been mangled and wrecked on my round-nosed pliers. But the teacher said, "Try again." I made another loop. If not circular, it at least looked ovular. Then she said, "Make another one."

I wanted to remind her that this wire ain't cheap, but she said the only way to learn is to break a little wire.

So I made yet another loop. And another. And another.

I'm no loop expert- far from it, in fact. By thumbs were bloodied from twisting and contorting the wire into the proper shape. But I had half of a pretty, delicate, beaded bracelet. I won't be able to sell it with the rest of my designs, but at least I will be able to enjoy it.

One of the other key things I learned during this class is the necessity of proper tools. My instructor had very few actual tools made for "beading." Nope, this girl shopped in the Craftsman section at Sears. A girl after my own heart. She knew which tools worked best for her because she had tried so many out. During the class, I had tried out a bunch of different tools and decided that some were really useful, others not.

It's so much like recovery. Not every tool will work for every person, although there are some basics that pretty much everyone will need. The kinds of jewelry you can make are endless, and so is recovery.

The idea of creating things, even just necklaces and scarves, is so innately appealing to me. I don't have a God complex, but there is such a moment of pride in realizing, "I made that. That came from ME." And so amid the scraps of wire and yarn, scissors and beads, or the flashing cursor on my laptop, I create.

And create and create and create.