Today

I had a brief moment of panic last night, when I realized that it is just a little over a week until Christmas and:

• I've yet to bake a cookie
• I haven't got a tree in a bucket of water in the garage, let alone in the living room, decorated within an inch of its life, screaming, "Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart!"
  
• I've barely scratched the surface of my Christmas list
• I've sent no cards, wrapped no presents, knit no gifts

In other words, I'm W-A-A-A-A-Y-Y-Y-Y behind.

It is all too easy this time of year to lose sight of today in our frantic rush towards tomorrow. We wildly knit across our lives, then turn and hurriedly purl back, only to reach the end...

• of our day
• of our list
• of our patience
• of our energy
• of our rope

Before we turn and start all over again, trusting that somehow, if we just keep going, the perfect Christmas will fall off our needles and into our lap.

But not me.

Not this time.

Not this Christmas.

Not this year.

Because, in giving to others, I have discovered the biggest gift of all.

And that gift is today.

************************

Sometime in mid October, I was discouraged because I had lost my 25th subscriber on Bloglines. I wondered if this blog I was writing was worth my time, let alone my readers'.

If I had any.

I worried that in this overcrowded and sometimes overwhelming world, I wasn't making a dent.

Or even a hiccup.

So I did what I always do: sublimate and bury the doubts under a pile of snarky humor. And run a contest to see who could guess the day and time I would regain that magic number: 25. I promised 25 items to the winner, with really no idea what I would send. I just hadn't thought that far ahead.

And it took me all the way to Thanksgiving before I regained that twenty-fifth reader. To paraphrase Jimmy Durante, "Thank you Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are."

Tiennie was my closest guesser. Now I had to decide what to send.

Now folks, I have enough stash to knit until I die and into the next generation. Sunflower Designs will never run out of yarn. Not in this lifetime.

I bear a burden of guilt for a period of gross over-consumption (especially of sock yarn - they are the potato chip of the yarn universe - betcha can't eat just one!) An idea began to form.

I sent her a knitter's advent calendar - one skein of sock or lace yarn a day - for twenty-five days. I won't bore you with all the details. You can just surf on over to Tiennie's doorstep and read all about it. I'll wait...

Dum-da-dum-da-dum-dum-dum
Dum-de-dum-dum- DUM-de-dum-de-dum-dum
(That's the final Jeopardy tune, in case you didn't recognize it.)

Oh, you're back?

Tiennie decided to pay it forward and give away some of her largess, with my blessing. I just came from Tiennie Knits and, let me tell you, the love that is building over there is awesome to behold.

I thought I would make someone smile.

I had no idea I would make so many someones smile.

Today I have been blessed to observe and participate in the greatest holiday miracle there is: the blooming of love in the human heart.

I have questioned in the past the ability of this thing we call the Internet to form true and lasting connections. No more.

I began this blog, as I approach all my writing: as ministry. If I'm going to write on a daily basis, I figure I might as well throw it out there for others to catch.

I've no idea where this ride I'm on will take me, but I have faith in the people I meet along the way and in the fitness, the balance, the perfection of my final resting place. "To turn, turn will be my delight. Till by turning, turning, I come round right."

I am not just touched. I am profoundly moved by the ripples moving through our community today.

Tomorrow can look after itself.

For today, there is love.

********************

There is also eye candy, even if it's not Friday.



This is Arabian Nights laceweight from Kim over at the Woolen Rabbit, hot out of the yarn pot. She tells me it is a little more blue than the close up would indicate.










Mmmmmmmmmmm! McDreamy......