Summer Catch-Up

Discovering knitting podcasts has jump-started a renewed interest in the craft this year.  It has been exciting to see what other women knit and has made me want to expand my skills.  Also, the gentle click of my needles sets my heart rhythm and before long, the bumps have been smoothed out and detangled.  It has been a welcome balm for grief and as I create things for others, I realize that Love Never Dies but passes out and through me via needles, cooking, or just offering my listening heart to others.

I’ve bought yarn from fresh new places and even took an online class to knit a Botanical Blanket.  Admittedly, I prefer to knit than write at this moment in time, so I am pledging to create a post every week this summer.  If I can do The Twelve Days of a Feminine Christmas, I can write ten essays this summer, give or take.  For those who have written to ask where I am, forgive me and blame my knitting needles…

I’m listening to music again for the first time in a long time too.  I’m inspired but I’m particular – right now, I only like soft music with feeling.  If you grew up in the 70’s as I did, you are familiar with singer/songwriter Paul Williams.  So much of his music places me back to the start of my future when a moderate amount of angst was part of growing up and leaving home.  Much of my troubles back then were not quite defined, just a longing for something out there that wasn’t yet in the palm of my hands – an abrupt end to an infatuation, a broken friendship, a misunderstanding…all those little problems that have nothing to do with REAL problems that come later in life but still ache and not deliciously so…

Paul Williams’ melodies have a sob in them, a little catch or lump in the throat.  It’s in his voice and it’s in his lyrics – “You and Me Against the World”, “Waking Up Alone”, “We’ve Only Just Begun”, which he originally wrote for a commercial for a bank!  Google it…you’ll see.  His lyrics are so poignant, so touching.  “When one of us is gone, our memories will have to do, our memories will see us through”…yes, indeed.  If you are up for a little pinch or a tug of the heartstrings, listen to sweet Paul Williams’ voice and songs – he is a master poet.

And finally….a teaser to a future post, also inspired by poetry:

In a writing class I took years ago, I had to choose an object from a basket and write a poem reflective of it.  Being late, all that was left in the basket was a crusty old bottle of pink frosted nail polish.  That night I wrote the only poem I have ever liked that came from my pen.  My words fell onto the page and in only a few lines, my composition told the story of my first love which was a summer one.

Somethings are writ.