Blog Post #2 - Defining Occupation and Belonging Through Macrame

I'm excited to share that I have made some progress with my macrame project this week. The Hobby Lobby kit I purchased came with one long macrame cord, so I first had to cut eight long cords and seven shorter length cords from the original to begin my project. Next, I continued to follow the instructions for how to start which were provided with the kit. Initially, I was really confused as the instructions were difficult to follow. There was one instruction in particular where it asks you to add a cord onto the right side of the dowel, but in the image for that step, it shows the new cord on the left side. It then directed me to do a specific knot going to the right, but the image showed something completely different. After some trial and error, feelings of frustration, and searching supplementary YouTube videos, I was eventually able to figure out which direction I needed to add the additional string and how to tie the adjacent knots. Throughout this past week I've experienced the emotions of the excitement of starting a new occupation and project, frustration that I wasn't able to follow directions that I had assumed would be simple, and finally a sense of accomplishment that I was able to problem solve to figure out how to tie the various cords and knots. I've included images below to show my progress thus far (note-it doesn't look like much progress, but it took me a long time to finally figure out what the process was).

Hasselkus & Dickie (2021) have presented a variety of definitions for occupations which provide a wide range in the scope of what they include to be an occupation. For example, some definitions of occupations simply include that which individuals do which occupies their time, and occupations that are associated with their individual tasks of daily living. In addition to this, other definitions provided by Hasselkus & Dickie (2021) include the culture, leisure activities, and occupations which are part of community as a whole as opposed to being central to one individual person. My new occupation of creating macrame relates to these definitions of occupation by being an activity which I strive to participate in daily. It is not necessarily a task of my daily living, such as brushing my teeth or getting dressed for the day, but it is a leisure occupation which I want to get in the habit of doing daily. While macrame doesn't necessarily have a cultural or community basis in meaning for me, I do think it's become a topic of conversation for my family and inner-circle community. My mom will often ask me for updates on how my macrame project is going, and she has actually talked about it to her coworkers who have sent her some ideas of macrame I could create next.

As presented by Wilcock, one model of occupations includes that of "doing, being, and becoming" (Hasselkus & Dixie, 2021, p. 22). Later added to this definition by Rebeiro and colleagues was the attribute of belonging (Hasselkus & Dixie, 2021, p. 22). These four occupational dimensions of doing, being, becoming, and belonging were ultimately described by the authors to determine the survival and health of an individual. My new occupation of making macrame relates to this model in the ways that I feel like adding this skill to my toolbox has allowed me to have another outlet when life becomes stressful, anxiety-inducing, and/or overwhelming. The process of doing macrame allows me a state of being which is more peaceful than when I haven't participated in this creative occupation. An example of becoming can be seen in the change of when I first started learning macrame to compared to now. I am still very much a novice, but I know a lot more about the different knot and cord types compared to when I first began my occupation. Lastly, my new occupation has helped me to gain a greater sense of belonging by interacting more widely with community members who have similar interests and have given me input on what my next macrame project could be.

 

References

Hasselkus, B. R. & Dickie, V. A. (2021). The meaning of everyday occupation (3rd ed.). SLACK Incorporated.