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Do you not know, have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God

The Creator of the ends of the earth

He will not grow tired or weary

His understanding no one can fathom

He gives strength to the weary

And increases the power of the weak

Even youths grow tired and weary

And young men stumble and fall

But those who hope in the Lord

Will renew their strength

They will soar on wings like eagles

they will run and not get weary

They will walk and not be faint.

on knitting

I found this article today and wanted to share a quote, as I think it sums up very well some of the reasons I enjoy knitting as much as I do.  Not only is it enjoyable creative, it is curiously cathartic.  Read on:

"

One day, it occurred to me to try knitting. It worked! The repetitive motions of my hands were the perfect substitute for the repetitive motions of my body while walking. The knitting kept me busy and centered but freed my mind and heart to dance around whatever issues or problems were currently bothering me. I say "dance around," and not "think about," because while the needles were in my hands, I found that they provided a certain distance between me and the problems of my daily life-even those problems that had seemed so huge, so all-encompassing just hours or minutes before.

I soon learned that this distance gave me more than just a blessed reprieve from worry. As I sat quietly and knit, my mind would slowly calm. Soon, ideas and worries would start to bubble up to the surface one by one, slowly, instead of all together in a furious boil. I found that if I simply acknowledged them and then let them simmer, rather than try to actively concentrate on them, amazing things would happen. Vague hints of solutions would begin to appear in my subconscious. By refusing to think too hard, I could open my mind to all sorts of answers that I would never have considered otherwise.

Most importantly, I would gradually come to a feeling of peace, of hope or anticipation or contentment. My mood after a knitting session is virtually always drastically improved over how I was feeling before I picked up the needles that day. Even when the problems that worried me were essentially out of my control-war, for example-or insoluble, such as grief for the loss of a loved one, after knitting for a while, they would seem less horrible, less terrifying. Quite simply, knitting made me feel better."

-Katherine Welsh, Knitty.com

Curious, but true.  Read the rest of the article if you don't believe me.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I should get back to that sweater I'm knitting...

said Aslan

"...Up till then he had been looking at the Lion's great feet and the huge claws on them; now, in his despair, he looked up at its face.  What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life.  For the tawny face was bent down near his own and (wonder of wonders) great shining tears stood in the Lion's eyes.  They were such big, bright tears compared to Digory's own that for a moment he felt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his Mother than he was himself.

"My son, my son," said Aslan.  "I know.  Grief is great.  Only you and I in this land know that yet.  Let us be good to one another. "

-C.S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew

as kingfishers catch fire

Sorry [sort of] about the stereotypical song-lyric-post preceding this one.  Sometimes lyrics just describe a situation too perfectly to be ignored.

My pastor preached the entire book of Song of Solomon in one message this morning and it was pretty underwhelming compared to Mark Driscoll.

I struggle against bitterness and fear and loneliness daily.  My dad prayed for me today, that there would be light at the end of this tunnel.  I sit alone and wonder when it will appear.

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is –
Christ. For Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.

- Gerard Manley Hopkins