Random Clarity

This morning I walked out the door with my knitting tote, off to my first sit and knit with a group of ladies who knit/crochet for charitable causes at the library for 2 hours...well, I was running late, more like 1.5 today. As I left, I rounded our corner and Katherine had run to tap on the window for one last air kiss, wave and smile. At that moment I imagined to myself, her, years from now writing that book I have never gotten around to writing. I imagined the narrative as this, "My mother was always knitting something, or going somewhere to knit with other knitter's..." Then, it struck me! those sorts of books don't really get written any more...which then inspired this thought:

We are losing our craft. (I know, bear with me).

Knitting and other things of the like are on the list (yes, they actually made a list) of things that are stress relief. We have all kinds of people who depend on substances, anti-depressants, drugs, other people, t.v., and so on to take us out of this world into a plane of numbness and oppression. We are oppressing ourselves with our own self-medicating, whether substance or technological or career.

You may say..."What in the world is she talking about?!?!?!" I will tell you...if we spent more time WITH each other instead of apart so much to have the things we want but never get to actually HAVE each other; if we would spent more time creating with our gifts and talents those things which help us to grow and cope and most importantly, love, instead of working so hard to keep what we never really had in the first place; if we really paid attention to what was going on...in our lives, in our families, in our hearts, might we not discover the world for which we have been searching? Might we not find that which we seek and then some?

The more we look, are we not let down for want of searching for something that has already been known from eternity? I think the hardest thing for any of us to ever learn to do is to let go, simple as that. Let go of the falsehoods and follow Truth; let go of insecurities and allow love in; let go of ourselves and let our neighbor be important; let go of our pain and let the tears baptise and cleanse us into newness; let go of pride and let ourselves to feel, to learn; let go of who we think we are and just...be.

What does all this have to do with knitting, you say? This is what this means to me...when I knit, my hands are not idle, I am creating, for once in this world, I can really create something useful over and over again. If I can do nothing of use to the Glory of God but this, I knit. I knit to try to be more humble and selfless. I knit to learn discipline and patience. I knit to finish what I have started, even if it drives me nuts. I knit to persevere and struggle. I can only hope that the intention behind it all will somehow take root in my daughter, sweet as she is and find her craft that can bring her virtues for which to struggle to attain. All this from a craft.