Touching the Thread of a New Tapestry

It’s far too easy for us to watch this old year spoiled and damaged, blessed and burdened all at the same time, trying to figure out the curse of what more can be taken from. It’s been a rough year of loss, a rough year for friendships and alliances.

But, I’d rather not think like that.

Rather than look back at this previous year with any sort of harm, I’d rather wrap the whole thing up, put it aside in the mind, and begin a new tapestry of hopes and memories, where each thread woven is calculatingly precise in it’s desire to bring light and joy. The new year may be marred by mistakes, it may been tarnished by wear, but the intention was always to make sure that the first day that you wake finds you threading through life, and the tapestry that it weaves, is a desire, a need, to do the absolute best that you can for someone else.

And as we all stare at the calendar, wait with anticipation at the moment that clock strikes and we can all be absolved of “what was” and look towards “what could be,” I’m reminded that every moment in life can be seized at any moment of your liking. Why not start right this minute? Why not move ahead right now? Why not bundle those memories of before and begin threading new ones right this second? Why wait another week? Why issue a creed that says, on said day we start anew.

Well, I’m not waiting. Because there are so many things I want to accomplish and pursue in the coming year. The most important of those being charitable work. I want to use my knitting to not only feed myself, but to help feed others. My family asked me this year what I wanted for Christmas. I could only reply, “Donate anonymously to the Second Harvest Food Bank.” As much as I need, and as much as I struggle, I know I have the ambition and the drive to do what I can to feed myself. Some people aren’t so fortunate. I walk by them on my way to the grocery store. They’ve lost hope, and that’s the one thing I was blessed with. I was given the gift of hope. I’ve had to use Second Harvest in the past. I am indebted to them for the meals they were so kind to give me. I will never forget that.

That’s the first thing I want to accomplish: getting to a place where these knit bears, elephants and tigers all have a use worth more than being held, but that their impression upon people helps to feed, clothe, enrich someone with hope.

So, we’re not waiting until January 1. We’re starting today. We’re clearing out our shop, tend to our financial commitments, and then we’re spending the first week of the month working for charity. The first week of the year is my birthday week. My mother will be coming down to spend my birthday with me, and with she being a crocheter, we’re putting her to work. We’ll spend that week giving back in any way we can to help make the new year born of hope and help.

So, take a look around our shop. We have my knit animals, Phillip’s Strange Friends, books….and hope.

We’re not saying that 2017 will be a better year than the one before. We’re making an attempt to remind ourselves every day, that the threads we use to weave our life tapestries, though individual and thin, are bold and bright when used for the betterment of the whole.

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