Someone recently wrote me and mentioned her sewing room. It was in the context of maintaining her sanity.  She said she had a stressful day at work and when it was over she retreated to her sewing room in order to maintain her sanity.  That’s all it took for me to start on another musing journey.

I certainly can’t argue with her about her work being very stressful.  It probably is equally true for many.  And even if your work isn’t stressful or if you don’t work, we all have stressors in our lives.  The cause might be a family member or friend.  Failing that we always have the world to contend with.  The recession has engulfed us; the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan remain, issues like heath care consume us.  It seems we are trapped in a stressful world from which we can’t escape, short of dying.

Given that, I suspect we all have our “sewing rooms“ to retreat to in order to maintain our sanity.  I guess mine is writing musings for this blog.  In some ways it allows me to lose myself in the subject matter and finding the right words to express my thoughts..  For those who don’t write, they have other ways to escape the stress in their lives.  Some may actually have a sewing room.  Yet for others it may be exercising – workouts at home or the gym, or even running marathons.  Still others may find it on the internet and such destinations as Facebook where apps allow users to escape into fantasy worlds.  Maybe the stress reliever is being with family or friends.

Anyone who has stress in their lives, and that has to be just about all of us, doing something, going someplace to get way from whatever stresses us.  Without that we explode with behavior that can cause harm both to us and others.  I suspect even cavemen and cavewomen did something or went someplace to relieve the tensions that living then created.  Stress is a condition of living and “sewing rooms” are our way to maintain our sanity when faced with it.  When things get tough, we take a few minutes or a few hours and head to our "sewing room"; the world can wait till we return.  So, what is your "sewing room"?