I watched a little drama unfold one day in the hallway of the counseling center where I worked.  One of my colleagues had been teaching another colleague how to knit.  The new student of knitting brought his first product to work to show.  It was the first 8” of a scarf.  As he proudly displayed it to his teacher, she inspected it closely.

She commended his good work and said, “There is one other important lesson you have to learn about knitting.”  She then took the loose end of his work and gave it a pull, unraveling two or three rows of his work.

He stood in horror. “What are you doing?”

“You have to learn how to do that yourself, to undo what you have done.”  She went on to explain that unless you are willing to unravel your own work, you will be tempted to overlook mistakes, to just go right on with the product knowing it was not done as well as it might be.  She went on to say it was necessary to learn that the joy of knitting is in the process, not just the product.  If you get too caught up in finishing the scarf, it’s easy to lose the joy that comes from making the scarf.

Unraveling your work is a good reminder not to get so connected to the outcome that you forget the joy of the task itself.