Quietness

I've been silent here for a while. Part of it is because things are busy. I've been busy revamping my room, coordinating projects, and preparing for the fall semester looming on the horizon.

There's another part, though. That part is me sorting through lots of thoughts and prayers in an attempt to find my voice here. I'm used to writing for my own eyes only. And a lot of that just doesn't fit out here in the open. I've been tempted in the past week to find things to post about anyway, to force out some filler into this space. But I really want to preserve the openness here.

I guess, sometimes, that will mean just being quiet. Resting, patiently waiting for the words to come. Thanks for waiting with me.

Works in Progress

The organizational action in my room is in full swing but since I am now done with *all* my various crafting supplies, I feel like I'm making some headway! Along the way I discovered a few projects I'd forgotten about, and now they are all collected in one place. My trusty pepsi crate, that contains all sorts of "works-in-progress." Here's what it's full of now! (In gray are my more current projects - ones I've been actively working on.)

1. Fabric cut out to make wall pockets from Anna Maria Horner's book, Seams to Me.
2. A lap sized sampler quilt is basted and folded, patiently waiting for quilting and binding. And...it's been waiting a while. Now that quilting a "full" sized quilt is much less daunting to me, I'm ready to take on this one.
3. There's the shell and lining of a grab bag. They just have to be sewn together and pressed.
4. I have a stack of denim squares cut and all ready to be zig-zagged together into a rough-and-tumble blanket.
   
5. A knitted beanie hat. All this one needs is for the ends of yarn to be woven in and trimmed.
6. A half-knit washcloth/dishrag.
   
7. A knitted woolen coin purse, waiting to be felted and for the addition of a button.
8. A knit lace scarf. Green and soft.
9. An afghan, two-thirds of the way knit. Size Q needles and two strands of yarn - one soft minty green and one white. It will finish quickly.
10. There's a single handwarmer waiting for the thumb to be added. And also for a mate.
11. The brown sweater in my pepsi crate is technically finished (I've actually already worn it once), but silly-little-me wants to take out the edge of the cap sleeves one more time to make them a little tighter.
    
12. My ten-year-in-the-making bear cross-stitch is almost finished. Only about a third of the backstitching is left. In the past three years I've reserved work on this project for during vacation, but part of me wants to finish it this year. Can't you just see me telling my kids (someday), "This is the cross-stitch mommy started when she was nine...and finished when she was nineteen!" lol. We'll see.
13. Then there are two other cross-stitches. The humming birds and hibiscus are well under way, but last I remember were in kind of a pickle. We'll have to see where they stand.
14. The garden basket quilt sampler cross-stitch is barely started. I may decide that I'm not interested enough in the finished product of this one and just let it go. But I haven't given up on it yet!
15. There is the cover of a handmade notebook (from Decorative Journals by Donna Downey), waiting for a lining and a clip full of notepaper.
16. I have a little tiny leatherbound sketchbook filled with notes and pictures from our most recent vacation. But there are still a few photos that need to be glued into the pages.
17. And...last of all, there's the tatted doily that has three complete rounds but is lacking another three.
    

I love having everything I've started all together. Out in the open. I'm quite inspired (at least at the moment - I love writing lists!) to finish up a lot of the little odds and ends. And to be more systematic about finishing the bigger projects. I think my favorite part, though, is that there's no pressure. Just a whole box full of beautiful things to do - and I can choose whatever I like!

So...I'm off to finish a dishcloth while I read.

***Edited to Add***

I figured with all this talk of unfinished business you might like to see something I *have* completed (actually the day after I talked about it last week). So, behold, the cathedral window pillow. It makes my bed a happy place. :)

{five} happy things

breaking in {shoes}. shoes that were bought in the rainy spring and that gave me blisters the first and only time i wore them. since i want to be able to wear the to school - which means a lot of walking - i'm going to have to grow some strategically placed calluses. so i wore my happy shoes for thirty minutes this morning. and thirty minutes this evening.


finished {feathers}. and still a few more to play with. this card has been sitting on my bookshelf all day (i made it last night) and every time i look at it i can't help smiling.

perky recipe cards, the homey comfort of chopping veggies, and savory smells; all the things that made {cooking} happy. oh, and the blueberry cobbler was good, too.

believe it or not, the {organized mess} i have going on in my room right now is a good thing. i've been working hard the past two days to rearrange, declutter, and reorganize everything in my room (and some stuff from a few other places!). the thought of having all my books together, all like craft supplies together, and etc makes the current mess worthwhile. so even though i can only see about six square feet of my floor, i can live with that for a while. (i thought about not putting in a picture for this one, but figured you might not believe my description. and a picture is worth...well, you know. ;D)

a little after-dinner {wandering} outside. with my camera to help me see. the early twilight was so soft and beautiful. (oh, and look, this is cool. in the light, something that was dead - a rose - is made beautiful. if that's not a happy thought i don't know what is!)

tumbling.

after a day full of movement and getting things done, sometimes it's nice to sit quietly with a pair of scissors and concentrate on cutting delicate lines. the finished feathers tumble gently from fingers, and all the thoughts of the day fall with them.

and they rest. gracefully.

Color My World

It's a rainy day here. After lunch and a run on the treadmill, I got out a project I've had in the back of my mind for a week or so. And while the sky was gray outside, I crafted a kaleidoscope of color inside. (Ok, so it's not quite a kaleidoscope yet. But it will be.)

It's a cathedral window pattern, made following these instructions. It will not be a quilt - I don't have that much patience. A pretty pillow cover is more my size. :)

One with Christ

I've been reading Eragon recently (as well as the following books, Eldest and Brisingr).

One of the main tenets in the books is the friendship between Eragon (the protagonist) and his dragon, Saphira. This friendship is based on a mental link between dragon and rider - so that Eragon feels what goes on in Saphira's mind, and Saphira understands all of Eragon's thoughts, as well. (And they can communicate through this link - by "thinking" their words to each other.) It is as if they are inside one another, actually (in a way) combined to be one being.

I've thought about this connection a lot. And I can understand that some of you reading this now may think that dwelling on such telepathy (even in a story book) can't be good. But it dawned on me the other day that the friendship between Eragon and Saphira pictures beautifully a relationship far greater.

When I first started reading Eragon, I thought how humbling it would be to have someone inside my head all the time - hearing all my thoughts and seeing all the images and whims of my mind. That person who was linked to my brain would know me better than anyone ever could dream of knowing me - and they would know who I really am. Without any gloss, and without any editing. And that would be scary.

The second thing I thought about having comeone inside my head, was that such a relationship would be (by its very nature) much closer than any "normal" friendship. Knowing someone in that way - being linked to them so irrevocably - would be...intimate. That person in my mind would actually be part of me. And I would be part of them.

And then it dawned on me. God hears all my thoughts. (Duh! We talk about this all the time! Somehow having a story-picture of it makes it so much more tangible.) He really knows me.

And He has sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in me. He is in my head! (And my heart...) I can know Him that way. Wow.

The analogy goes further. The same way that Eragon can build up barriers around his mind so that Saphira can't hear his thoughts - and the same way these walls also prohibit Eragon from hearing Saphira - so I can shut myself off from the Holy Spirit's grace (I have to choose to hear Him). The same way that Saphira and Eragon feel and understand the other's pain (as if it were their own), so He feels and understands my feelings. (He actually feels my pain! It's not just that He knows it, or understands it, but He actually feels it.)

It's easy for Eragon (or Saphira) to get distracted with what they are doing and not hear what the other has to say. It's easy to not be conscious of Another's presence inside of us. But I want to be aware.

He is here. Inside of me. He wants to be an integral part of me, and I of Him. So that my identity is forever linked with His. As one. Insepparable. I have this opportunity to be in Him, to know Him like I can know no other, if I listen. I don't want to miss it.

"At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." -John 14:20

"Abide in Me, and I in you." -John 15:4a

working for happy

see what i did this evening after i whipped myself into shape and tackled the jobs i'd been avoiding all day? i really should know better by now: quiet joys are so much more enjoyable when you've worked hard to earn them. maybe that's why i had such fun taking a picture of my feet after my work. :)

and maybe that's why i'm so enjoying being in this space tonight, as well. because taking an evening run (with my brother!) has cleared my head and given me that new spark of energy. of happy.

i think God gave us "work" for a reason, don't you?!

the fourth

lots of things that say "independence day" to me. (and my family, who helped. *grin*) made at wordle.net, the neatest place ever for creating cool lists.

happy fourth of july!

Once

Once, there was a girl. This girl had been blessed with a loving family and great friends. And she was grateful.

Once, there was a girl. This girl was loved by her Creator in a way that changed her life and made her new again. And she sang His praises.

Once, there was a girl. This girl found beauty in each day. And she was delighted.

Once, there was a girl. This girl started a blog as a space to store up all her gratefulness, praise, and delight. And she welcomed in her family, her friends, her God, and His beauty.

Once.