Here`s a favourite view of mine

Weaving, stitching and knitting

Writing about weaving yesterday, it could so easily apply too to tapestry and cross stitch, which I enjoy doing. Looking at the back of my stitch work, seeing the way the threads overlap and the colours intertwine with one another, the dark and brighter ones, patches of each. That there is a purpose to them all and a place in the pattern of it for them all makes me realise that in life it must be the same too.

Today I`ve just come across a ministry of knitting. It`s something I`ve not heard about before, but what an inspirational way to spend ones time knitting. It makes me feel that I`d like to start doing something like that here.

The Weaver

Thinking about the dark glass I wrote about yesterday, and the way my thoughts have gone over the past few days reminded me of another item in a similar vein.

The Weaver:
My life is but a weaving
between my Lord and me;
I cannot choose the colours
he worketh steadily.

Oftentimes he weaveth sorrow
and I,in foolish pride
Forget that he sees the upper,
and I the under side.

Not till the loom is silent
and the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas
and explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful
in the weaver`s skilful hand
as the threads of gold and silver
in the pattern he has planned.

Dark glass

Looking at a stained glass window again today – yes, the sermon was very long! – I found that the window said something else to me…….

I saw in it several dark brown pieces of glass and other dark colours, I`d never noticed them before, I don`t know why I hadn`t because they must have always been there, but the more I looked at it, it made me realised that those dark colours were very important in making up the whole picture, the whole pattern.

That set me thinking, that maybe these `dark times` that we all have from time to time are also important in making us the whole person that we are.

Insight

It came to me today, that this is my life, that I`ve got to make the best of what I`ve got, where I am, and not keep hankering after what I`ve not got. It must be where God wants me to be, and I`ve got to accept that.
I think it`s helped me think, by writing what I have this week.
I also remembered today a prayer I`d come across some time ago in a book of Norfolk Prayers,
to quote part of it:

Lord, help me to accept
where I am
at this moment.
It may not be where I want to be,
but the beginning of my healing
is in the acceptance
of where I am.

And if I don`t know
where I am,
or what is happening,
or what may happen,
then help me to live with
`not knowing`,
if that`s where I am!

Lord, you know exactly
where I am,
In your love,
you are with me,
here, in this place.
Thank you, Lord.

I`m not rushing!

I`ve had a day off work today, and had the house to myself most of the afternoon and evening, and its been lovely. I can get so much more done too when I`m on my own. I`ve had time to do both housework and some of my craft work. I know mother can`t help being slow, but doesn`t she realise that when she was my age she did things as quickly as I now do. All I keep getting told by her is “you`re always rushing doing everything , slow down”. I`m not rushing, I don`t want to slow down, I`m not old, (yet!!) It`s so frustrating.
I suppose that`s why I keep writing things like this here, because it’s the only safe way I can have of releasing the frustration, or trying to.

Mixing Ingredients

I was saying the other day about how most baking has four identical ingredients, yet can make so many varied items from them. The four I was referring to were:- flour, sugar, eggs and margarine. There are so many ways to blend and mix them and each gives a different result. Even if different people mix the same ingredients in the same way for a sponge cake when you look at the results all together they are all different.

I wonder who it was that first tried mixing those ingredients and baking them to make cakes, buns, scones, puddings? What made them first try? Who had the idea?

Baking is something we take for granted doing, yet someone first thought of doing it….. when? and where? and who??

Done it!

Well, I eventually plucked up my courage today and went. I knew I had to do it, and no doubt the majority of people would go without a second thought about it. But I`m a coward. As I sat there waiting, my number was the next one, but the clock kept going round, no-one went in or out, I got to the stage of telling myself that if I wasn`t called in another 10 minutes I was going home. But just as that ten minutes were nearly up, the number changed and I had to go in. It was all over in a couple of minutes, it didn`t hurt, and I asked myself afterwards what was I so scared about….. but I know I`ll be exactly the same the next time I have to go.
Where did I go?... yes to have that blood test that I was told I had to have. I`m sure that 99.99% of you reading this, will probably think what a stupid creature, but as I said in yesterdays writing I am an odd one out!

Discontented

A bit of thinking aloud today……Why can`t I be contented with life?

Looking back to school days, I couldn`t wait to leave and get a job. School days, so they say are the happiest days of ones life, I didn`t find that. Now I`ve got a job (and had it for a good number of years) I can`t wait to retire? I`m discontented at work, with the way things are there now-a days and the hassle of not enough staff, and the unrest among so many of us.

I want a life of my own, before it`s too late. I look at others of my age, they`ve got their own partners, children, homes etc., (I don`t mean I`m jealous, but it just brings make me realise what I haven`t got), they`re doing what they want to do. Me, I`m stuck still at home having never moved out. I`m an odd one out, and with the elderly parent, what chance have I got of finding anyone. My time`s not my own, my life doesn`t seem my own with an elderly parent to live with. I`d love to walk out, get a place of my own, but I can`t.

I know I`ve got a lot I should be thankful for, but I`m discontented with how everything is. Yet, what can I do about it, without hurting anyone.

Word Pictures

I wonder how many people, like me, get amusing “pictures” from various words and expressions?......
Whenever I see along the road the sign “Large plant crossing” – I expect to see a tree get up and walk across the road.
“Cats eyes removed” – sounds as if one should keep ones pussy well away from there, or it could be painful.
“remanded in custody” – have they put them in a jug of custard!
"drawing pins" - what pictures are the pins painting?!

Window thoughts

I`ve been looking at a stained glass window again today.
The more I looked at it the more different shapes and pieces I saw in it. Some were very large, some smaller and some very tiny, yet all were so important to the design. Each one was different but each really mattered. Some had hard corners and edges, others were curved and gentler shapes, yet all fitted together. But without the strength of the lead frames holding and uniting the pieces they would just be a pile of glass fragments, not able to make a thing of beauty and of use.

It made me think, how we could be thought of as those pieces of glass, each of us different, yet God has a place for each of us and its his strength that holds and supports us.

Bird Nest

Birds choose the oddest places to nest don`t they?
Going down the alley beside where I work earlier this week I head a lot to twittering and bird calls that sounded like a nest of young chicks, but I couldn`t see where it was coming from. Then the next day I spotted a starling dart quickly across in front of me and disappear, and I could again hear all the tweeting going on. As I looked up an adult bird sat by a metal grid in the wall. Looking closer at the place the next day I could see that the top corner of the grid was broken making an entrance hole and poking through the lower part of the grid were a few bits of twigs or straw, so I`m fairly certain now that we`ve got a nest of starling in the wall of where I work! Yet, it`s quite a busy alleyway with people always up and down.
I wonder how many other people who have walked up and down there have spotted it?

Flying time

Where does the time go? Every day I think tomorrow I`ll write my Blog earlier in the day than this, yet, here I am again and its past my bed-time and I`m now getting down to writing it. Perhaps tomorrow I`ll do it earlier.
But then, as the saying goes “tomorrow never comes”.
I wonder if other people have the same problem?
I`ve not even been at work today, yet I`ve filled up every hour doing something…. alright, yes I sat outside in the summer house for a while this afternoon, but I didn`t sit doing nothing. I can`t sit doing nothing (or at least not for very long). I took some craft work out there to do. Pity I can`t take the computer out there!
Is time going quicker? It certainly seems like it to me.

Can`t think what to write today, so here`s something I saw whilst on holiday, which I found interesing, both in the way it was made and the number of things contained within it. The more you look at it, the more you can see in it.

If you want to see the other side of the circle, and find out where it is look here

Think before you speak

I`ve just realised, I must be mellowing! I took my Mum and her man friend out to visit a flower festival the other day, and someone, seeing them together automatically assumed they were husband and wife, as they said to me something about my Mum and dad, and, for once I didn`t bite back ! I`ve normally quickly said very sharply “he`s not my dad”, but this time I didn`t. I wondered afterwards why didn`t I?, I suppose to save the other person (who was a complete stranger) embarrassment. And perhaps because it seemed pointless as we`d probably never see them again.

Having said that, it`s not to say that anyone local and making that slip, won`t be told firmly that they`re wrong!

It also goes to show, that one shouldn`t assume relationships between people they see together, doesn`t it. Wonder how many times we all do that and jump to the wrong conclusions. It can be very hurtful, as I know from experience.

Creepy Crawlies

Why were slugs created?!
What useful purpose can they have?

I think I`ve said before that I don`t like “creepy crawlies”…. This afternoon I was potting up some plants I`d bought the other day, and to do so had to empty some containers which had had bulbs in during the spring. On turning one upside down to get them out, and when it dropped out – ughhh there were several slugs and a lot of woodlice at the bottom but now on the top as it sat on the ground. But, what to do about them…. I didn`t want them getting everywhere, in the end I resorted to putting some slug pellets on them and hoping that would do the trick. It took me a long while to risk turning another pot up, eventually I did and found exactly the same, so at that stage I gave up emptying the pots. I know, don`t tell me! - I`m a coward. But why do such tiny things (against the size of us) manage to make one feel so creepy?!

Get Cooking

I`ve been working with some recipes today, and it`s amazing how although the majority have at least 4 basic ingredients in common, they all turn out completely different dishes. It may be the different mixing methods, the different cooking methods, differents heat used. What four ingredients am I talking about?

Inspiring Worship

Although I attend worship almost every Sunday, so often I find it very ordinary, sometimes dull, sometimes seeming to be `in the past` irrelevant to life today (I know it depends a lot on who the preacher is). But, this morning`s, to me, was a really up-to-date inspiring service. The organ sounded so good, the singing went exceptionally well and really uplifted one. No, the hymns weren`t modern, they didn`t need to be, some of the older hymns do have lovely and meaningful words which are still very relevant today. The sermon, linked to the theme of computers was very well thought out and put across. It really was a good morning`s worship. Normally I prefer evening services and find more in them, because they are quieter and more thoughtful, but it will take a lot to beat that service.

I somehow think its going to be one that sticks in my mind for a long time.

They`re back!

Yes, the grockles are back!, they`re everywhere!,
but I think they`ve left their brains behind.
Walking along the pavements one is very tempted to say “Look where you`re going” or “Go where you`re looking”! they all seem to be looking one way and walking in a different direction.
And, Why, oh why, on a beautiful sunny warm day does it take mother, father, all the children a grandparent or two to all wander round a shop to buy one small item, maybe a packet of crisps, a pint of milk, a loaf of bread, then to all decide to stand in the queues at the checkouts, making the queues appear much longer than they really are. Surely commonsense would be for one to come in and the rest to wait outside?
Or is it the novelty of small shops after the big supermarkets that`s the attraction?
I don`t think so, by the way they moan about the length of the queues – don`t they realise its them and others like them making the queues look so huge?!

Fascinating needlework

Visiting the Quaker Tapestry the other week, reminded me of another great piece of stitchwork that I went to see a few years ago. Done in a totally different style to the Quaker one, it too was very, very impressive. No, it wasn`t the Bayeux one, to see what it was, have a look at this. I enjoy stitching, and have done 4 fair size tapestry pictures, but nothing on the scale of these. I`m full of admiration for those who can produce such a wonderful piece of work, and so large. The hours and amount of stitches that go into them, is astounding.