Slice of Life: Gratitude for Turkey Vultures

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Sunday morning my daughter, my husband, and I were peacefully sitting on our front porch having our coffee. All of a sudden a horrible odor wafted through the air. "What is that smell?" we all exclaimed. Then it seemed to diminish. However, just a few short minutes later it returned. "That is the smell of death," my husband said. My first thought was, "Please let it not be under the porch." We started to look around, and I spotted turkey vultures in the woods right next to our home. That answered our question as to where this dead animal was. The smell was so horrific that we were driven inside to finish our coffee. All day long whenever the slightest breeze would blow from that area we would be overcome with the sickening smell. I found myself thinking, "Why now? Why on a day we can relax outside?" I warned my other three children who were expected to arrive home that evening that the air was not too pleasant in our garden. Upon their arrival they quickly came inside where the air conditioning protected us from the repulsive aroma. I watched, from the sliding glass doors in my studio, the turkey vultures as they came and left the carcass all day long.

Each morning I journal as I enjoy my first cup of coffee of the day. I begin my daily journaling with gratitude. I promptly wrote, "Thank You for the air conditioning that protected us from the smell of death and allowed us all to sleep peacefully." I began to think about the turkey vultures, who were still with the carcass. I decided to look up "turkey vultures" in my book Animal Speak by Ted Andrews and learn a bit more about them. I learned that turkey vultures remove from our environment what could harm our health. I learned that they work to keep our environment clean. I had something else to be grateful, and I wrote, "Thank You for sending the turkey vultures to protect our health." Suddenly, I viewed having this decaying animal so close to our home differently. I no longer thought of the experience as negative. I saw it as an opportunity to see how magnificently this world is created. Turkey vultures, an animal I previously did not have a great deal of respect for, I now had a heart full of gratitude for them. I now see them for what they were put on this earth to do - to protect human beings and other creatures from what could cause us great harm. I am looking at this world quite differently today and wondering, "What else do I view as negative that I should be seeing through the eyes of gratitude?"

Where Bloggers Create 2011

This year I am going to participate in the annual party "Where Bloggers Create." Last year I sat in a chair on the side of the pool filled with very talented people. This year I am jumping in! I've provided the link in case you would like to join me.

http://mydesertcottage.blogspot.com/2011/06/where-bloggers-create-2011.html

Slice of Life: Quality vs. Quantity

This morning I was reading Life is a Verb by Patti Digh. On page 66 she tells a story about a pottery teacher who told half his class that they would be graded only on the quantity of their work. He told the other half that they were to produce only one piece of pottery and they would be graded only on the quality of their work. At the end of the story, the work of the highest quality, out of all the pieces, were the pieces from the quantity group. This story led me to think about my students and my felting.

I am reminded that our students must write a lot to get better. I asked myself if I had my students write enough this year or did I spend a large amount of time having them work on one piece. Did I let them choose or did I assign the genre? Did I let them work on more than one piece or did I insist that they complete a piece before moving on to another? Were their Writer's Notebooks filled with ideas and attempts or were they given white paper to write on to turn in? Every June I think about what I will do differently next year. In September, I am going to have a discussion with my students - quality vs. quantity. Something tells me that they will clearly already know what I needed to be reminded. I want my students to produce their very best work, and I now clearly understand how to help them achieve that.

I am a needle felter. A while back I signed up to be a participant in a Peace Felt project. In this project each person is assigned a giver and a receiver. You are to create a piece of art that is at least 25% felt. This piece is to represent peace or unconditional love. You send your piece to your receiver and you receive a piece from a different giver. The goal is to spread worldwide peace and love. Since signing up for the project I have been thinking about and sketching my piece. I have NOT, however, been felting. After reading the pottery teacher's story this morning I will be needle felting daily. I want my receiver to receive a piece of high quality, and I now understand how to achieve that goal.

I am reminded of the saying,"Practice makes perfect." I am also reminded of the old joke, "How do you get to the Metropolitan Opera House?" "Practice, practice, practice."

My Beautiful Rug

I fell in love with this rug last year. At that time it cost forty dollars. I stumbled upon it again this year, and it was marked down to twenty dollars. I bought it! It is a very girly rug, and I thought my husband would not appreciate it. So, I decided that the best place for this beautiful rug was in my laundry room. He doesn't go in there very often. My cat, Dory, a very girly cat, absolutely loves this rug. If the laundry room door is closed she cries until you open it so she can go in and lie on the rug. (I hope that was the correct use of lie. I always get lay, lie, and laid confused.)This rug makes me happy and brings a smile to my face every time I enter my laundry room - which is always piled high with dirty clothes. As a wife and mother of four I say that LOL means Lots of Laundry!

Relieved from Duty

After I finished the scarf for New Jersey's special olympics I saw on facebook that there were several other states in need of scarves. I scanned through the list for the state whose "must receive by" date was the latest. I discovered that was Alaska, giving me about a month to knit a scarf. Thinking that was plenty of time, I pledged to knit one scarf, printed a pattern and started to knit. I did knit - every night, but with four days to go until the scarf needed to be mailed I found myself about eighteen inches short. I began to visualize myself knitting while I was just about doing everything else, as well as knitting late into the night. My husband commented, "I didn't know that knitting could be so stressful." Sunday, during a knitting break, I went onto facebook and discovered a post that said that Alaska had received more scarves than it needed. I felt as if the weight of the world was lifted from my shoulders. I am truly thankful for all the wonderful knitters who were able to get their scarves completed and sent on time. You know, those amazing people who are able to manage their time so incredibly well. As a knitter I really want to knit for charity, but I am finding it difficult when there is a deadline. I think I have all this time, but in reality it never quite seems to be enough time. That seems to be the case for many others things in my life. Time - I always seem to be fighting time. I felt that God said, "Your intentions were good, and that was all I needed. You are relieved of your promise." Thank You, God. Now for the Knit 1, Bless 2 blanket I pledged to complete by May 31 . . .

Vogue Knitting Live

Saturday, January 22 was a cold and blustery day in New York City. Taking place at the Javits Center was the motorcycle and boat show. Taking place at the Hilton New York was Vogue Knitting Live! On this cold windy morning, my sister-in-law, Doreen, her friend, Amelia, and I drove to Port Imperial to take the ferry over to New York City. The ferry was packed with lots of men and a few women going to the boat and motorcycle show, and lots of women and a few men going to Vogue Knitting Live. Once off the ferry we took the bus up to 52nd street and walked the few blocks to the New York Hilton. Upon entering the Hilton we quickly realized that we were in knitting heaven. Vogue Knitting Live took up three, (or was it four?) floors of the hotel. There were two floors called The Marketplace, where you could purchase everything ever made for knitting and crocheting. There was amazing yarn by the miles. The rooms were filled with the most talented knitters and crocheters in the U.S. Inspiration was everywhere! I easily could have spent thousand of dollars on the patterns, books, yarn, and other materials, but I carefully walked through the two floors of marketplace booths and then made my purchases. I purchased an autographed book titled Cowlgirls by Cathy Carron. I was blessed to have some time to talk with Cathy and we quickly discovered that we were both moms to beautiful daughters whom we love to knit for. Cathy's book is filled with cowls to knit for my girls. I also purchased a pattern book titled Huggable Friends 1. This book is filled with patterns to make adorable huggable boy and girl dolls. My niece is expecting boy-girl twins in June and these dolls would make the perfect gift. At the same booth I bought the coloring book of huggable dolls. I thought perhaps I could use the pictures in the book as patterns for needle felted dolls. My final purchase was the gorgeous knitting bag that is in the photo on this post. I did not get the name of the talented woman who made this amazing bag, but I believe you can find some on Etsy. They are each one of a kind, but each and every one is beautiful. There were also lots of classes to take and lectures to attend. We chose to just go this year and get a good idea for what is was all about. Next year, though, I plan to sign up for those. As soon as Vogue announces the dates for next year I will be marking them in my calendar. If you live on the west coast Vogue Knitting Live is coming to you in April. Check out http://www.vogueknittinglive.com/. It is one event you do not want to miss if you are a knitter or crocheter.

I must also mention that we had a delicious lunch at The New York Marketplace. This was on the ground floor of the hotel. Both the service and the food was outstanding. I will certainly be returning to eat there, even if there isn't a knitting event taking place.