From Philippa's Photography, Incurable Hippie via Flickr: http://philippaphotography.blogspot.com/2008/11/sewing.html

I'm diligent about sewing on buttons.  I'm not terrible about stitching up small holes either.  But big mending tasks defeat me. 

Part of it was the lack of a sewing machine; however, when my parents came to visit in October my mom brought me an *amazing* piece of equipment: a Bernina with a touch screen and embroidery attachment.  Yes, in theory, I could be monogramming the fire out of all of our towels, pillow cases, and clothes.  But what I've actually done with this sewing machine is repair an old black wool skirt I can't bear to part with . . . yet this skirt remained wadded up in various places for over a year, waiting for me to find a way to sew up the lining which had come apart at the back seam.  Literally.  Split right down from the zipper to the kick pleat.  So, armed with a bobbin already loaded with black thread and the only other spool of "real" thread I own in the color of rust, I hooked up the fancy sewing machine, put pins in the lining to hold it together, and sewed up the seam.

It took moments.  It took longer to set up and take down the sewing machine than to sew the seam.  I pressed the skirt and wore it today, happy to be back in my wool skirt given the frigid temperatures. 

But all of this made me think about mending in the greater sense of the word.

To mend also means to heal, to repair, to reconstruct, to return something to its original state, to fix.

Some mending is a quick fix, a couple of moments  focused on what is broken -- clearing up a misunderstanding, taking care of an avoided task, giving someone extra attention or praise.  But some healing takes a lot longer.  Perhaps a relationship has been ripped apart at the seams. Hope has been diminished by repeated disappointment. Broken dreams are much harder to mend than buttons (but broken zippers rank high on the list of difficult repair jobs!).

My conclusion: don't ignore what needs mending, but in time, the solution will become clear.  In fact, it may take more time to come up with the solution than to execute it.  Or, the solution may be clear but you don't have exactly what you need to carry it out.  So, do the best you can.  Not what everyone else expects, not the best someone else can do or suggests, but the best you can do.

 As my granny used to say, "All you can do is the best you can do, and that's good enough."