FROM THE EDITOR

Margaret Sadler | Editor-in-Chief, news & views, ARTA

I think not. The mind itself is capable of teaching both the body and the brain— establishing and changing habits that affect our whole being.

Our mind wanders a lot, we know. Just try to stop it! Perhaps it’ s healthier when it wanders less and rests more. Or perhaps daydreaming is a healthy wandering.

When I find“ flow,” my mind seems most creative— energized and yet most at ease. I find that zone when my hands are creating. I’ ve just knitted a hat for my sister. It was the first time in years that I had done any knitting. It was a restful time— thinking of my sister and seeing the cable pattern curve off the needles below my fingers.

The paper-pieced quilt squares I’ m creating for a niece spiral across the page into a heart shape as I add piece after piece, numbered one to twenty-two. I’ m not thinking about work or what’ s for dinner; I’ m focused on the sewing machine needle following the lines and the shape that’ s building at my fingertips.

Music creates another zone— one I dance in without thinking. No one’ s watching, and the music inhabits my body. Sometimes music inhabits my soul, and I’ m carried away emotionally and physically.

Handwork and music occupy more singular spaces in my mind. Communal flow is possible, too. My wedding day was one of those prized zones— when I realized that everyone in the room loved me; loved the two of us. Another is the small group we belong to who have been meeting together monthly for about thirty years to speak of weighty matters. The peace and comfort of that group is priceless.

With family, comfort came recently while playing cribbage, which my sister and I had played as children with our grandfather. Remembering those times recalled all the beloved who were also in the room— many long gone. Only the two of us remain, playing cards together for the first time in decades.

Flow is rewarding in so many ways— the feeling of being fully absorbed, the accomplishment in that time that seems timeless and effortless. Soul satisfying. Surely it benefits our whole being.

As a memento, our niece will have a quilt sewn with scraps from her grandmother’ s sewing material and pieces of her grandfather’ s ties.

SPRING 2026 | 7