Prayer – Contemplative Knitting

Waiting

My aunt is in the process of dying. I heard the doctor said she may have a few days. Cancer. She is only 73 and the youngest of my aunts. I remember her wedding day. I was eleven. She had a beautiful ball gown wedding dress that made her look like a Disney princess. ItContinue reading “Waiting”

Choosing Our Words

Last week in my post, I equated the word small with insignificant. One of my friends reminded me that small also means small – tiny, little in comparison with something enormous like space. I meant insignificant, she meant tiny. Finding the right words can make a difference in our ability to express ourselves. My husbandContinue reading “Choosing Our Words”

Are we in trouble?

Hiking has changed in the last 40 -50 years. We used to get a guide for the areas we wanted to hike. The guide would tell us where the trailhead was and then narrate the hike. I remember my father reading the description of the trail from the guidebook. “Follow the brook for two milesContinue reading “Are we in trouble?”

The Unwanted Visitor

Nothing can prepare us for the experience of loss and grief. We may think we know how we are going to react but we don’t and it is different for everyone. Grief is the unwanted visitor that hangs around outside listening to the unthinkable news being delivered. It may wait a few minutes but thenContinue reading “The Unwanted Visitor”

Lament

My favorite book of the Bible is the Psalms for good reason. This ancient poetry expresses every human emotion and is especially good for the times when all you want to do is cry. The pictures coming out of Ukraine are unthinkable. A woman’s hospital bombed. Pregnant women about to give birth injured. How canContinue reading “Lament”

Ash Wednesday

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Psalm 51 is used in the Ash Wednesday liturgy. The story goes that King David wrote it after he got another man’s wife pregnant. He saw her and took her against her will. When she discovered she wasContinue reading “Ash Wednesday”

A wonderful friend came over a few days ago. We had connected in a bookbinding class and she was coming over to help me create a journal cover. I had forgotten some of the skills I had learned over two years ago. She arrived and unloaded two bins of fabric, buttons, thread, paper which sheContinue reading “Share”

Repent

Some biblical translations of the Bible translate the Greek word “metanoia” into repent. Metanoia means a transformative change in one’s life, a turning back to God. When I think about repenting, I think about starting over, turning back, and resuming my spiritual practice. Of course, I think about the sins I committed and the regretContinue reading “Repent”

Everlasting

When I hear the word everlasting, I think about all the things I’m surrounded by that are temporal. As I look around, I realize that all my treasures will someday be gone. So what lasts? I have been taught and I believe that only one thing lasts – Love. After all, most of us haveContinue reading “Everlasting”

Praise

Praise is the motivator to keep us going when we are learning a new skill. It has to be authentic and specific. New knitters drop stitches, create uneven tension and a variety of mistakes as they try to manipulate the needles and yarn. This can result in frustration especially if they have picked a projectContinue reading “Praise”