Mrs. Pilkington Knits

Bright Spots

I've been thinking and reading a lot about bitterness, resentment, forgiveness lately (again)...and got a boost from this, by Barbara Brown Taylor, this morning. From some of her thoughts on the story of Abraham and Sarah:

"It is a hard thing, to believe in a promise with no power to make it come true. Everything is in the future tense -- the land, the son, the blessing. Everything will happen, by and by, but in the meantime what is there to live on now? And yet. What better way to live than in the grip of a promise, and a divine one at that? Who in her right mind would give that back? To wake every morning to the possibility that today might be the day. To remain wide awake all day long, noticing everything -- the way the shade of the olive tree processes from west to east, and how the smell of the fields changes from green grass to yellow hay as the sun heats up overhead. To search the face of every stranger in case it turns out to be an angel of God. To take nothing for granted. Or to take everything as granted, though not yet grasped. To handle every moment's of one's life as a seed of the promise and to plant it tenderly, never knowing if this moment, or the next, may be the one that grows.

To live like that is to discover that the blessing is not future but now. The promise may not be fully in hand. It may still be on the way, but to live reverently, deliberately, and fully awake -- that is what it means to live in the promise, where the wait itself is as rich as its end. All it takes are some regular reminders, because as long as the promise is renewed, the promise is alive, as vivid as a rainbow, as real as the million stars overhead."

I'll try.

And hey, it's a nice way to look at all of my WIPs too.

Keeping Up

In my head, at least. I've actually started this year's Advent calendar, and I think it'll be one we can re-use. Woot! Good thing too, we've got some demanding royal personages around here:

The only homemade thing in this post is the headband. But, I have excuses! NYC Nomads that we are, we spent most of October moving. Pics of my sister's awesome paint job in CP's room (rainbows!), and the wardrobe-turned-fabric closet to come.

In things bookish, please check out both of these fascinating links. First, an article by author (How Do You Wokka-Wokka?) and bookseller Elizabeth Bluemle on weight issues in children's literature and this link, found via Neesha Meminger (Shine, Coconut Moon) to "The Danger of a Single Story", a TED talk by author Chimamande Adichie, who tells "...the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding."

Going outside to watch the early NYC marathoners in a bit -- I cry annually, but it's mostly the good kind. The 'wheelers', all of the people of different physical abilities in the race...awes me every year.