Final Friday of January - A Poem for You

Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore,

May the relief of laughter rinse through your soul.

As the wind loves to call things to dance,

May your gravity be lightened by grace.

Like the dignity of moonlight restoring the earth,

May your thoughts incline with reverence and respect.

As water takes whatever shape it is in,

So free you may be about who you become.

As silence smiles on the other side of what's said,

May your sense of irony bring perspective.

As time remains free of all that it frames,

May your mind stay clear of all it names.

May your prayer of listening deepen enough

To hear in the depths the laughter of God.

- "For Equilibrium," by John O'Donahue

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Happy weekend, friends - may February bring you happy thoughts and good times.

A Finish, a Good Book, and No Unraveling!

It's been too long since I joined in on Unraveled Wednesday, hosted by Kat!  I always enjoy hers and others' posts, talking about what they are reading and making.  So I am making sure that this week I can be part of the fun.

I'm feeling quite proud of myself, because this past Sunday, I finished the second slipper sock of the pair I was making for The Tim as a Valentine's Day gift.  Here they are, ready well in time for the day, and it's a bonus that they are made with yarn from my stash.  YAY!

Now, granted these are worsted weight, but I am still surprised at how quickly I got them finished.  It was a good way to start the year, and my 2020 Box of Socks. 

Reading-wise, I'm currently about halfway through this book.

The Tim gave me this book for Christmas, and it has been my lunch hour reading so far this week.  Elaine Stritch was quite the character, and learning the details of her life is really interesting, and often funny.  For instance, I found it amusing that the playwright Noel Coward said that the best martinis were made of gin, "and then you held the glass in the general direction of Italy before taking the first sip."  Stritch's career was mainly on the Broadway stage, but if you watched the TV show "30 Rock," you would have seen her playing the role of Jack Donaghy's mother (his character played by Alec Baldwin), and she was perfect for that.  I'll probably finish this over the weekend at the latest, and part of the reason this is currently my only book is because I'm in one of those I-want-to-read-everything-but-also-not-anything moods.  So hopefully this will be my palate cleanser, and I'll be ready for something else.

And that's it for today.  Hop on over to Kat's blog (link above) and see what she and others have to say!

Attend

NOTE:  This is long and somewhat rambly, don't say I didn't warn you!

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Last week, there was a meme going around on Twitter.  It was for you to create your campaign slogan, and it was your last name, plus "2020," and the last thing you said to your pet.  Some of them were really funny, and some a bit disgusting, but mine would be:

Clancy 2020: Please Try to Be Sweet to Each Other

It amused me, and when I told The Tim, he said, "That's actually a great slogan.  But you'd be slaughtered by the Republicans for something like that."  He had a point.

But I was thinking about it, and of course, what I meant by "sweet."  That's a loaded word.  Of course, it can simply mean a piece of candy, which - if you know me - works just fine.  But when you are talking about behavior, it can mean two different things:  "Sweet" as in disgusting - you know, all bubbly, too pink, and, to quote my mother, "Something that makes you just want to slap a person."  But then there is "sweet" in the sense of being kind, considerate, and just nice to yourself and others.  I always tell the pets to try to be sweet to each other when I leave the house because that is actually what I would say to whatever family I would have, be it human, furry, feathery, etc.  You don't need to be perfect, and you don't need to overdo it, just try your best to be good and be good to each other.  In this case, I mean that I hope they will at a minimum leave one another alone, and at best, cuddle and interact from time to time during the day.  Pay attention to each other and be considerate.

And then, this morning as I was walking to work, I turned onto a street that I usually don't walk along on my way, and I was truly dumbstruck by something.  I happened to look up, and straight ahead.  The way the houses and the trees framed it, I saw in front of me an absolutely stunning sunrise.  It was the kind of sight that makes you wish you could take a photograph, even if you know the photograph would not come close to showing what you see.  It seriously took my breath away.

Then I started thinking about the last time I had purposely seen an amazing sunrise, which was a few years back when we took a road trip vacation through New England.  We were in Bar Harbor, and had visited Acadia National Park the day before.  While there, we read that when the sun rose on Cadillac Mountain in the park, it was the first daylight to hit the United States, and that it was a sight to behold.  The next day we were leaving to head back south and eventually home, but we decided to be sure to see that sunrise.  Needless to say, about 50  other people also had that idea, but there was plenty of sunrise for everyone.  It was unlike any other experience ever, to stand silently, hearing the ocean crashing on the rocks below, and then suddenly see light starting to show.  And then it seeemed that inch by inch, the sun kept creeping up until all of a sudden, it was a new day!

(From the Bangor Daily News, but this doesn't come close to capturing the real thing!)

I remember the day we saw this, it was just a couple of months after our dog Dug had died, and I thought how he didn't have a chance to see any more sunrises, nor did any other loved ones who were no longer here.  How seeing a sunrise means that in spite of all the odds, you have woken up to see another day. 

Seeing the sunrise today made me realize that all over again, and also made me think about how amazing it is.  I just happened to turn on to that street, and look up randomly and see a new day in the most literal sense.

I used to have a supervisor who, when someone would seem to be settling for less than they should, would say, "Raise your sights."  Today I did just that, in a different way, and just by chance, and it has made a difference.  All I did once I raised my sights was to actually look, to pay attention, to consider what I was really seeing.  I was attending my life.

So now I have my One Little Word for the year:  Attend.  I want to attend my life, and be in it.  I want to pay attention to what I have, and what I can do.  I want to attend to myself, my family, and my life in a more conscious way, trying to remember that no matter what else is going on, if I wake up and the sun is going to rise, I need to attend to it, because I've been given another chance at making the ultimate gift mean even more.

I want to attend, and by doing so, listen to my own campaign slogan, and try to be sweet to others.

Rain, Sorting, and Ick - A Weekend in Review

I must agree with this pup.  But just as I'm sure his day went on, and hopefully improved, mine will too. 

It was an odd weekend.  Not terrible, just ... odd.  Saturday was a major rain day here in Philadelphia.  I mean, it POURED for the bulk of the day.  And it was windy, too, so if you never looked out the window, you might have thought you were on the English moors of Wuthering Heights.  The good thing about that is that I used a good chunk of the day to review/organize my stash and knitting supplies.  I found some things that had been given to me over the past year that I just wasn't loving, and nowadays if I don't love something, I tend to give it away or donate it.  I have finally gotten my stash to the point where what it contains are things I am keeping on purpose because I plan to actually use them.  Over the years, I had bought so many yarns "just because" that when I decided several years back to be ruthless and realistic, I was left with a stash that was mindful.  In the past year, a few people have given me yarns that they found in a relative's belongings, and passed to me 'since you know how to knit.'  And that's fine, because I have the distinct feeling that if I didn't take the stuff, it would be trashed rather than donated.  But it was almost all things that I either don't like (yarn with stuff in it - you know, like buttons, etc. that make it "artistic") or that I just know I won't ever use.  Since we have a women's shelter in town that has a knitting group, I like to pass that stuff on to them.  According to the person who runs the group, the women get excited to have things that are new/different to them. 

Anyway, I got those things together, as well as some extra needles and notions and got them ready to drop off.  This also served to get the whole room in better order, a bonus for sure.

We also watched some shows and movies during the afternoon and evening.  Every year, we try to make an effort to watch some movies that are nominated for Oscars in one category or another.  So far this year, we've seen "Marriage Story," "The Irishman," and "The Two Popes."  Eclectic, no??

Sunday it wasn't raining, but ugh.  I woke up with all kinds of aches and pains, and for a good part of the day, gastrointestinal issues.  I didn't feel terrible, but I didn't feel good.  So I mostly stayed put, and the good thing is that I got very close to finishing a pair of socks I'm making for The Tim as a Valentine's Day gift!  I have just a couple of inches on the foot of the second sock, and then the toe, and they will be finished.  This makes me happy because now I don't have to worry about them being finished in time.  It also means I can start on a test knit I'm doing (who AM I?) for one of the ladies who runs Nice and Knit.  Then in March, my friend and former Rosie's co-worker Andrea and I are having a sock knitalong.  We are going to try the Clark Socks by Jaclyn Salem.  I'm looking forward to it!

One funny thing about us having a knitalong - when we worked together at Rosie's, every time we'd see a pattern that we liked, or a new book/magazine arrived, we'd find something we both wanted to make.  We would spend time choosing what yarns to use, and discuss it ad nauseum.  Do you know how many things resulted from these various knitalongs?  Zero.  :-)  So it will be fun to *actually* cast on and get going this time ... 

I'm feeling better today (of course, it's a work day, right??), and hoping that this week at work will be as uneventful as possible.  We are in the near-end stages of a renovation of our workspace, and it has been horrific.  Theoretically, this week should be quieter.  We'll see.

Anyway, here we go with another week and the last one in January at that.  Let's hope it's a good one!

Friday Funnies

Well, it's Friday, and that's always reason to smile, right?  But in the event that you need a little bit more of a push to get smiling, I thought I'd share these with you.

Poor pup - the Cone of Shame (though he seems pretty happy anyhow ...)

I really love this one!

HA!

This one made me laugh, since recently I was reading something where 

the writer said, "Why do people think it's funny to act like they

have your nose??"

Parents and kids - the same forever?

Stupid - but hey, I laughed ... :-)

*****

Here's hoping you have a good weekend, with the chance to do what you like, and with at least one good laugh!