some news (and a little knitting thrown in for free)

We've heard several stories of heartbreak in the past few weeks.  A beloved parishioner was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. The littlest sister of a co-op friend was diagnosed with leukemia.  She's two.  A friend miscarried a much-anticipated child.  Earlier this fall, the father of my son's good friend died unexpectedly.  Knowing the heavy burden that each of these families is facing, I struggle to muster any angst over a virus that has a 97.5-99% recovery rate.  I recently read a piece in The Atlantic  and read again this beautiful essay, resolving to Choose to Live.  Because we can shut ourselves away, surround ourselves with all of our talismans and theatre to avoid death, but death will surely find us.  What better way to prepare ourselves to meet death than to have lived fully? And by fully, I mean faithfully...relationally.  And now I realize that I've been staring into space for fifteen minutes, trying to gather the words to express myself.  They're just not coming the way they would in a face-to-face conversation.  Apologies.

On to the good news! Our Z received her acceptance letter to the college of her choice, and will be headed there in the fall.  We are overwhelmed with gratitude and excitement and relief, and not least because we won't have to go through the application process with her again.  That was torture for her and for us!  Thank you, dear reader, if you said a prayer for her.  More than anything, this has been an affirmation for our school choices; we didn't ruin her life by educating her at home for ten years.  I mean, she's a fantastic kid, even though I say it, so I don't mean ruin her character.  I did worry, though, that we didn't do enough, that we closed doors for her (No STEM teacher am I), and that she would be "behind" somehow.  

With all that has been going on in addition to our news, the roller coaster of emotions has left me completely done in, unable to think coherently about most things.  My Christmas socks are currently on hold so that I could knit a couple of prayer shawls. 

A sweet friend gave me several skeins of yarn for Christmas last year or the year before, and I was so touched that she thought of me.   I wanted to save them for something special, and using them for a prayer shawl seemed like a good way to pass on the blessing of her gift.  I modified this pattern, because the stitch pattern, simple as it was, defeated me.  I'm not sure who the recipient will be.  

For our dear parishioner, with whom I had a conversation about silk-mohair yarn just before her diagnosis, I decided to use superwash wool.  I wanted something that was bright, 100% wool, and easy care so that she didn't have to worry about getting it dirty, and whoever was doing laundry didn't have to hand wash anything.  A quick dip into a Barbara Walker treasury helped me determine the stitch pattern, and although it won't be finished in time for her first chemo treatment on the 22nd, the prayer shawl will be ready soon enough.

We are beavering away over here at wrapping presents, stuffing mediocre pictures into our Christmas cards, and preparing for some merrymaking.  Santa Claus drove by our house yesterday morning, spreading cheer and candy canes.  I was home from Liturgy with a sick G and Z, the latest two to be stricken by the miasma of germs in our house.  You can see G waving from the window of our second floor bathroom, where he was camped out and instructed to "hit the toilet, for the love!" Colds, fever viruses, stomach bugs...such is this time of year even without Omicron and Delta. 

 Praying that your Advent preparations are coming on apace, and that you are blessed with the gift of peace this last week before we celebrate the birth of Christ.