Fringe Element

"Everything is a gift.  Everything."*  As I dial the number for my chiropractor, I'm looking for the best thought about the odd angle I stand that looks a bit like a 90-year-old.  The gift will appear.

After a needed adjustment, a warm salt bath, and a nap, I know that of the Things I get to do today walking is one of the most important as it provides a balanced massage of the mid and low back. Standing is also fine.  Sitting, no.

A cast-off ball of cotton cord

I began by standing and playing with my knitting frame and a recent gold mine:  bags of yarn from an exploration through a friend's yarn bin.  An ordinary-nearly-ugly ball of cotton cord became a scarf.  Reverse stockinette looked better than the "right" side, so some handwork was required.  I walked all around the house while I closed the long scarf.

Half the scarf length

A fringe would sharpened the look. A fringe is made from dozens of pieces of yarn, equal in length, fastened with a loop by a crochet hook.  Picking up each strand, folding it in half, forming the loop with the hook, and securing it to the scarf can take some time.  And my idea was to be walking while putting on the fringe.

Fringe lengths folded in half over index finger

I took the whole handful of  waiting strands, folding them over my index finger at the halfway mark. Slipping the hook through the desired location, then picking up one strand from my finger, pull through, hook fringe tails through, tug, done.  Amazing!

Hook first through fringe-location stitch then picking up fringe strand

Pulled through location stitch

Ready for the final pull-through

Finished scarf: a gift

The round-trip to the chiropractor took less than an hour: a gift.  My back feeling better and standing and walking for an hour: a gift. Discovering an efficient fringing technique: a gift.  Getting to share the lesson: a gift--for you.  Happy Valentine's Day.

*From Vimala Rodgers' Alphabet (www.iihs.com).  This is the statement of intent for the letter G when written in the recommended style.

Things I Get To Do Today

“The work never ends, does it?”  my neighbor commented as I slicked a few straying plants (often referred to as weeds) from a front garden bed.  I straightened in amazement.  Apparently I’ve been on this path for so long that her words jarred me.

“Wow!” I said, “I’d rather think of it as always having an endless array of exciting activities to choose from.” 

She blinked abruptly with a jerk of her head.  “Well, I suppose that’s one way to look at it.”

I’ve been where the neighbor is.  Life is full of hard work.  You get relief when the job is done.  The satisfaction of crossing it off the list is all there is.

I’ve come to know, over time, that we all get to choose how we think about and look at life.  We can choose the perspective that pleases us, that fills our day with anticipation, that juices our eagerness and that produces great satisfaction in the process of doing everything. 

One day my friend Susan and I were playing with all of the above concepts.  Her idea about lists was “get to do” instead of “have to do.”  And so was born, “Things I get to do today.”  Not everyday, but several times a week, I take my previous list of possible activities and write them slowly, carefully and beautifully in Vimala Alphabet style cursive (http://www.iihs.com/vimala-alphabet.html).  I take time to think about each project.  What aspects of the process will I relish and what could I bring in thought that would create pleasure in the task? Then using my own personal technique for evaluating the importance of each item, I assign the items numbers with 10 being the most important (do this first!) and 1 being the least.  From there I simply fall to, beginning with number 10.  All day I plark (see post "Diapers for my table saw" 9/20/11) my way through the list.  If I’m not enjoying myself, I stop, rethink my objective and milk it for all the goodness it holds.

This whole thing might sound simplistic, like mind over matter or self deception or rosy-colored glasses, but I go to bed at night in sweet peace and I wake up the next morning, eager to start my day.  And I, for one, think that's the way to look at it.