February Monthly Reflections Theme

Thought it would be "love"? It's not. The theme for February is "heritage", compelling us to hear again (or for the first time) the stories of our heroes and the social and spiritual currents that shapes our faiths. How do these stories shape the choices we make in everyday living?

The January Monthly Reflections Theme...

is VISION.

What is your "vision" for 2010?

Mine is love beyond belief; peace through compassion and understanding; courage to overcome fear.

First rug of the New Year

The last few days I have been trying to get a block done on the Monthly Meditation Rug. I have not been able to catch up with September, October or November because I didn't get around to ordering my linen until so late in the season. So I just concentrated on hooking December's block, "Awaiting", and will return to hook the other three autumn months next autumn.

My original vision, to use Celtic images in the blocks didn't work out. I kept wanting to hook geometrics. So I settled on Celtic knots with December as my first try. Also the original color plan wasn't interesting enough, so I changed course on that too. Each block will be a different color on the color wheel, so the rug will be a color wheel geometric sampler.

I'm hooking it this way so that I can practice hooking with values, with lights and darks, with no worry about color. I hope to teach myself more and more about value hooking, and experiment with color intensities by altering the amount of gray and black I add to my palette dye formulas. I am trying to use the less intense hues in my backgrounds (wool dyed with some gray and black in the formulas), although I did throw in a few pure hue strips to keep the background moving. Since the word was "awaiting", I wanted the feel of moving around going toward something.

I learned on this first knot that I am not a precise artist. I thought my knot was centered when I drew it on and hooked it, but realize after hooking it that the knot is shorter on the left side than the right. This means that to do it correctly I should put a grid on each block before transferring the pattern. This way I can square it up as it should be. The problem is that if I do this now on the eleven other blocks, the one I have hooked already is going to be noticeable. So I either have to rehook it or eyeball the rest as I did the first.

Since I hang pictures by standing back and looking at the wall and then plunging in the nail, I probably won't draw grids on the other eleven blocks.

Hooking over the holidays

This holiday, besides making a couple more coasters for gifts, I am going to try to catch up on the monthly reflections rug. I don't have a picture to post yet, because I'm not done with my second square (October: Serving). I had planned to work each square with a Celtic pictorial design, but I can't seem to make it work. I keep turning to geometrics, and, oddly enough, hooking them without drawing the design on the foundation fabric.

This is really a strange approach for me, but it seems like the rug wants to come to life in bits and spurts on its own. It doesn't want me predesigning its every detail. The first square started with a nice drawing, and then, wham, it went out of the lines and the hook took over going where it wanted to, ignoring my original plan.

The second block has done the same thing. I started out with a picture, which quickly faded beneath a geometric pattern. What is emerging is a pattern of intricate blocks built to hold up the others. It is a geometric representing 'serving', where all of us are supported by what each of us does for the other.

Monthly Reflections Rug has already made a difference

I suggested hooking a Monthly Reflections Rug in order to see whether rug hooking, besides being creative, could also be spiritually transforming, like contemplation or meditation. What I didn't realize is how it would turn me to become more socially aware and active, not just introspective. Or maybe the introspection turned social at some point?

Whatever is the case, in October, in response to much soul searching about the theme 'serving', I decided to sign the dotted line and sponsor a woman victim of war through Women for Women International.

Photo: from Women for Women International website; picturing an unnamed woman in Afghanistan crafting a rug

I requested that I be matched with a woman in Afghanistan. For years I have been thinking about women in Afghanistan living under the Taliban and ravished further by an ongoing war, especially after viewing Kandahar, a movie (2001) that left me chilled when I saw it years ago.

Today my sponsorship packet arrived. The woman I am sponsoring is only a year younger than myself. She lives in Afghanistan where the life expectancy of men and women is 44 years old. I am 46. The woman I am sponsoring is 45. Unemployment is 40%. Per capita income is $1000. Literacy for females is 12.6%. Literacy for males is 43.1%. Access to safe drinking water? 13% of the population. The language of Afghanistan is a form of Persian known as Dari. "Hello" is "Salam". "Thank you" is "Tashakur". And "Goodbye" is "Khuda Hafiz".

What does my sponsorship do? For a year, the woman will be part of a group of 25 women who will become her support network as they go through an intensive training program. Each of these women will learn about women's rights, which will allow her to take greater control over the decisions that govern her life and that of her children. She will learn technical and business sills that will allow her to sustain an income. Upon graduation, she will receive direct cash and access to jobs or tools to start a business. Women who are enrolled in this program have become successful medicinal herb cultivators, livestock rearers, textile producers, jewelry artisans, shop owners and entrepreneurs.

I am excited to write my first letter to her and share with her that I hook rugs, a craft that crosses cultures and isn't limited by the boundaries of language or country. It transcends life's circumstances and allows for us to meet where otherwise we might not.

Monthly Reflections Rug: December's theme

The theme for the Monthly Reflections Rug in December is "Awaiting". I am thinking of advent and the coming of Christmas and the arrival of the Christ child.

But also I am thinking of my own pregnancy six years ago when I awaited the birth of my only son who was born on December 15th. I was forty years old and very ready to bring Alexander into the world, to hold him and look into his eyes for the first time. I never imagined I could love this much.

November's Theme for Monthly Reflections Rug

The church bulletin came today. September was "turning" (which I am just finishing hooking because I got a late start: see photo here); October was "serving" (which I have drawn out but not hooked); and November is "doing justice" or "justice".

The words of Micah come to mind: "What does the Lord require of you? That you do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God."

Living in Texas, I am concerned about many issues of justice, including the horrific fact that Texas leads our nation in the number of death row prisoners it executes since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. In fact, Harris County (aka Houston) is our nation's death penalty capital. 10% of all death penalty convictions made in the US are made in Harris County. This is all in light of the other known fact that Harris County does not have a Public Defenders Office, but relies on the appointment of defense attorneys by the judges who are known to want speedy trials, or what is boasted around the courts as "greased lightening." It is also statistically proven by a study made at the University of Denver that during the years 1992-1999 the death penalty was sought for white defendants only half as often as for african-american defendants.

According to Jeff Skelton, a legal analyst in Houston, the biggest reason behind these horrific statistics is that the Harris County DA's office has a "take no-prisoner" approach which was put into effect in the 1980s when Johnny Holmes was the DA and began to run it as if it were an extension of the police and instituted their concept of justice, favoring more prison time, more death penalties, and more punishment.

This should all be framed with the knowledge that Houston's crime lab has been under investigation for poor practices whose results have been overturned time and again by independent crime lab probes. Houston's lab has been called the "worst crime lab in the country" producing false tests results that have been used to convict people of crimes. It is only after the conviction that retesting the evidence at an independent lab ends up exonerating the convicted because the results from Houston's lab are found to be wrong. This has resulted in the release of several people from long sentences and from death row here in Texas. Because of this, in 2004, several of the major newspapers in Texas called for a halt to executions (which didn't happen). Death row convictions are still being challenged today due to the incompetence of the Houston lab, and yet no halt to executions or death penalty convictions is in sight.

Creating neutrals

For the Palette Dyeing rug camp, I have been working on creating neutrals which aren't part of the color wheel, but are necessary for our rugs. Neutrals are made by mixing complementary colors on the color chart. The opposite colors tend to neutralize each other and you end up with some form of brown. So far I have mixed even amounts of my red and green palette dyes, and my yellow and purple. I ended up with a burgundy brown (red-green) and a creamy brown (yellow/purple). This week I will mix my final neutral with my orange and blue and I will post the results so you can see the different range of neutrals I got from this process.

I have decided to use a complimentary color scheme on my Monthly Reflections Rug, using my palette dyed wools: 11=PURPLE and 5=YELLOW plus the neutral created from their combination. I am going to alternate blocks, one purple, the next yellow, and so forth. The borders will be hooked with the neutral wool.

I am off to Kinko's to enlarge the patterns I have drawn for my first two blocks (September and October) for my Monthly Reflections Rug. Once I get it drawn on, I will get to work hooking them, so I can get caught up and be ready for November's theme when it comes in the church newsletter. It is not too late for others to join the five of us who are creating Monthly Reflections Rugs. Just come on over to Rug Hooking Daily and join our group and the challenge creating a rug month-by-month!

'Gotta serve somebody'

My husband Wade is a diehard Bob Dylan fan. He has every official recording Dylan ever made and more books on him than "Carter has liver pills" as my grandma used to say. His ipod is so loaded with Dylan material that every time we drive around together just about every other song is a Dylan song (even on random play!). It is so bad that my son Alexander can identify Dylan's songs and voice wherever he happens to hear them. "I know who's singing this one," he calls out with gusto. "Bob Dylan!"

So this weekend one of the songs that randomly played was Dylan's famous piece, "Gotta serve somebody." Given that I have been reflecting on the October theme "serving" for my Monthly Reflections Rug, I began considering the theme from a slightly different angle this week. Earlier I had been reflecting on the theme in terms of service to others. But now I am contemplating a different preposition: service for another. I have been considering Dylan's words:

You may be an ambassador to England or France,
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance,
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world,
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

Rugs4Peace

This post is a continuation of my previous post about social awareness rug hooking.

This month I have been moved to become more and more aware of what is happening in our world. Normally my days go by with little thought of what is happening beyond my home and job. Because I do not live in poverty or a war zone, because I'm not homeless or facing torture or genocide, I'm not immediately attentive to the fact that there are too many people in our world who are living in hell because they have been ravished by war or are, even now, facing it daily.

I have been inspired this week too by President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize award. I know that the media is having a heyday trying to make his award a farce, but I'm not listening to them. I am listening to those other people in our world who felt it expedient to make this award at a time when it appears that Iran may have the capability for nuclear weapons, Iraq and Afghanistan are ravished with war and anarchy, Israel and Palestine have been exploding rockets across the wall that cuts through their neighborhoods, terrorists have brought down the twin towers, African countries have been facing genocide, etc. I can't imagine what it must be like trying to feed, cloth and educate my son Alexander and protect him if I were a woman living in Baghdad or a village in Afghanistan.

All these thoughts have converged on an idea. Rugs4Peace. I am inspired by the quilting community that came together and created the Aids Quilt which helped raise awareness for Aids during a troubled time. When I saw that quilt in a gymnasium years ago, I could not stop crying. It was one of the most moving pieces of art I have ever seen and it definitely gave the disease a human face.

Might we create a communal rug from individual rugs laid side-by-side and dedicated to world peace? Might we hook rugs to raise awareness about the victims of war and terrorism, and the terrible cost of war and terrorism in human lives? Might we hook rugs to inspire non-violent peaceful co-existence and tolerance of each other in our world?

Rugs4Peace only has a name right now. It is only a seed. If anyone in the rug hooking community would be interested in becoming involved in organizing such a communal project, please contact me either in the comments or by email (adeconick@rice.edu). If there is enough interest expressed, together we can get organized and put out a call for rugs.

How can rug hookers "serve"?

This week as I have been thinking about "serving" - October's monthly reflection rug theme - I keep going back to the fact that we are rug hookers. How does hooking rugs lend itself to service? I haven't felt that there is (yet?) a strong sense in our rug community of social action hooking, although there are a few rug artists who have begun pointing us in this direction.

As I mentioned last week, Donna Hrkman was moved a few years ago to create a social awareness rug to draw attention to the plight of women victims of war in the Congo after watching Oprah's feature on the organization Women for Women International.

Phyllis drew our attention to the work of Rug Aid, a non-profit organization put together by Heather Ritchie. According to Heather's website,

The aim of Rug Aid is to provide opportunities for women and children in some of the poorest communities in Africa. They will make rugs, wall hangings and decorative items for sale locally, nationally and, maybe later, through fair trade organisations world wide. By providing opportunities for women and children, the aim of Rug Aid is to bring about change 'from the bottom up'.

Saturday, November 21, Heather has put together Rug Aid Rug Rave. Heather is asking us to use that day to try to hook blindfolded for 30 minutes in order to know what it is like to hook blind like some of the women in Gambia. Heather has designed a special rug for the day. The pattern can be purchased in North America at Rug Art and Supply. The pattern costs $25 and all the proceeds will go to directly to support African citizens in the Gambia by teaching them rug hooking as a sustainable income-generating craft. She encourages our guilds to dedicate that Saturday to this event and make it an international awareness day for African women and children who are living in poverty.

Photo: from Rug Aid website, designed and hooked by Heather Ritchie, pattern available for Rug Rave day

'Serving' and the story of Zainab Salbi

The October meditation theme for the Monthly Reflection rug is "serving." This brings to mind "awareness rugs" - rugs hooked to raise awareness for social causes.

In 2006, the Celebration Magazine featured a rug "Women of the Congo" hooked by Donna Hrkman (follow this link to her own website and photo of the rug). She describes her rug as a "social commentary" which she hooked in response to an episode she saw of the Oprah Winfrey show when the organization Women for Women International was featured. She wrote about her rug, "I saw women who were survivors of genocide in the Congo and their horrific stories moved me to create this rug. It was designed to raise public awareness of their plight" (Celebration XVI, 2006, pp. 42-43).

PHOTO: From Donna Hrkman's website Blue Ribbon Rugs

Women for Women International is the organization that was featured on the show. Women for Women International provides women survivors of war, civil strife and other conflicts with the tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency, thereby promoting viable civil societies. Women for Women International believes in the power of "changing the world one woman at a time." Thus the organization operates largely by matching individual sponsors and their financial support with individual women in countries ravaged by war.

The organization was started by a young woman Zainab Salbi who is the most dynamic speaker I have ever heard. She was chosen to be the main speaker by the students of Rice University for the 2009 graduation. Imagine my surprise as she stepped forward on the platform in front of me (the faculty sit behind the stage) and I put two and two together, realizing that she was one of the women who had inspired Hrkman's rug.

As I listened to her speak last spring, I was so moved, so touched, so inspired, that tears were streaming down my face. Her courage was unbelievable. She told us about her horrific life as a young women caught in war, raped, and then sent off by her family into an abusive arranged marriage. So horrible was her life, so terrifying, that she decided she had to rip herself out of it, to start it over. It was this moment that she began, without a penny, an organization to help women victims of war called Women for Women International.

Photo: from Rice University News and Media HERE

During her commencement speech, she told us stories about the women victims she had met and the impact that they had had on her life. She emphasized again and again that each of us must "live our own truth," a message she learned from a woman who had been so brutally beaten and raped that she was unable to tell her story to anyone until Zainab came along. The woman told her, "I've never told anybody but you my story. If I could tell the world my story, I would. But I cannot. You can. You go ahead and tell the story -- just not to the neighbors." Zainab went on to say, "Without her, I would never have the courage to write my own journey. Without her, I would not understand that to break my own silence and speak my own truth is part of my responsibility to the whole world."

At the end of the speech, she said, "I learned last but not least that we must enjoy the ride," she said. "Often we take ourselves too seriously in whatever we are doing. There are a lot of horrible things in this world, but there are a lot of wonderful things too. If we don't enjoy the ride, shame on us. The women I work with start every gathering with singing and dancing, and who are we not to sing and dance every day? Who are we not to enjoy life every single day?"

She shared the words the 13th century Islamic mystic and poet Rumi:

Dance, when you're broken open
Dance, if you've torn the bandage off
Dance, in the middle of the fighting
Dance, in your blood
Dance, when you're perfectly free

"Today you are perfectly free," she said. "Go for it. Live your truth. Speak your truth. Be your truth. Don't wait. There is no better time. May you dance -- dance until the end, and may you enjoy the ride."

For a webcast of Zainab's speech, go HERE. For a written report of her speech, go HERE. For her published memoirs, go HERE. To become a sponsor for a woman victim of war or contribute financially to Women for Women International, go HERE.

October's Theme for the Monthly Reflections Rug: 'Serving'

This is the announcement of the theme for the month of October for those who are hooking the Monthly Reflection Rug (to join the challenge, go to our group on Rug Hooking Daily).

The newsletter announces the monthly theme for reflection and meditation in October: "serving". The newsletter states: "This theme is meant to point us toward a focus on how we can use our hearts and our hands and our voices to serve those who are our neighbors."

I am thinking about the lives of humanitarians over the centuries like Albert Schweitzer, Saint Francis of Assisi, and Mother Teresa.

Albert Schweitzer said, "Those of you who will be truly happy are those who have sought and found ways to serve."

Saint Francis of Assisi said, "It is in giving that we receive."

Mother Teresa said, "Do not wait for leaders. Do it alone person to person. If you can't feed a hundred people, than feed just one."

Want to read more about their lives this month? Here are some of their books, and links to Amazon:

Albert Schweitzer, Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography. This has been out-of-print for years, but has been reissued with a foreword written by Jimmy Carter. Here is what Publisher's Weekly says about it:

Even in our cynical age, the legendary story of jungle doctor Albert Schweitzer, self-sacrificingly devoted to the service of humanity, inspires. Out of print since the early 1970s, his classic autobiography, first published in 1933, speaks directly to modern readers in its searching appraisal of this "period of spiritual decline for mankind," an age in which science, technology and power seem divorced from ethical standards. In earnest prose Schweitzer discusses his research into primitive Christianity and his search for the historical Jesus; his love of Bach, "poet and painter in sound"; his fancy for rebuilding old church organs. His philosophy, which he called "Reverence for Life," blends mysticism and rationalism, with an impulse to release the "active ethic" he sees latent in Christianity. For this fluid new translation, Schweitzer's own corrections made between original publication and 1960 have been incorporated. Photos.

The Little Flowers of Saint Francis of Assisi. Michael Joseph Gross writes this in review:

Francis' Little Flowers, a series of 53 short chapters ranging in form from wild stories to serene meditations, is perfect bedtime or devotional reading. Before you know it, you'll be reading this one aloud to your cat.

Saint Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi. Amazon editorial review:

"Written shortly after his death, this is the Franciscans' official biography of their great founder Francis. His unusual vocation, life, miracles and greatness--all portrayed briefly, with love and honesty. Learn about the founder of one of the largest religious orders in the world. Inspiring!"

Mother Teresa and Brian Kolodiejchuk, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light - The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta. This book will be released this month! This is a review from Publisher's Weekly:

Mother Teresa was one of the most revered people of the 20th century, so it is no surprise that 10 years after her death people still want to know what impelled this poor, humble Albanian woman to give her life to God so completely. Kolodiejchuk, a Catholic priest and friend of Mother Teresa’s who is actively promoting her cause for sainthood, assembles a startling and impressive collection of her writings, most of which have never been seen by the public. Two themes especially shine through in Mother Teresa’s letters, namely, her absolute conviction that she was doing God’s will, and a deep and surprising chasm of darkness within her that some would call the dark night of the soul. It is also apparent that this saintly woman was no pushover. In her quest to found the Missionaries of Charity, she aggressively pursued approval from her bishop, fully confident that God desired this work to be done. Kolodiejchuk is at times a bit presumptive in his interpretations of Teresa’s letters, as no one can say for certain what was in her mind and heart at all times. What we do know, in part thanks to this volume, is that Mother Teresa’s vocation to care for the poorest of the poor will continue to inspire people for generations.

Last Reflection on "turning" and memories of my mother

Yesterday marked the tenth anniversary of my mother's death. On September 28, 1999, Gail DeConick died after undergoing a triple bypass surgery. It was a sudden and tragic death of a woman 57 years old who had not seen the birth of any of her grandchildren or her oldest daughter married. She was a person full of life, a joy to all who knew her, a woman whose family and our happiness was more important to her than anything else (including herself). She passed on to me her motherly wisdom which was rich and true, a sensible common wisdom that I rely on everyday of my life. She taught me not just to dream but to make my dreams happen. She believed in me even when I was having a hard time believing in myself. Her strength became my strength. After she died, I found myself looking in the mirror and seeing her standing before me. It struck me hard that she was living on in me, and at the time, this realization helped me grieve her loss.

Photo: me and my mom, twenty years ago!

A few years before her death, when I was still living around Ann Arbor, Michigan, she and I went on an autumn leaf hunt. We had just found an old orange coat at a church rummage sale, and we were so pleased with ourselves. What was I going to hook with this brilliant orange wool? We laughed together, saying "leaves" at the same time. So off we went, driving around Chelsea, seeking the perfect autumn leaves. She held the leaves as I drove to a local Kinko's were I placed the leaves on the copier machine and made photocopies of each one. When I got home, I carefully cut around the paper leaves, enlarging them slightly as I cut. These became the templates of the leaves in my rug Jack in the Red, leaves that now adorn the banner of this blog.

Jack in the Red is a big rug. It was almost too ambitious for me to hook at that time since I had only been hooking for a year and a half when I started it. It took me a while to figure out that I couldn't hook the leaves plain orange and plain red because they looked like blobs. So I experimented with splotchy (and sloppy, I might add) over-dyeing which I couldn't reproduce today if I tried. Who knows what I actually did. I sprinkled some burgundy and brown Cushing's dyes on red, orange, brown and plaid coat wools I had recycled. I studied pictures of how other people hooked leaves, and finally I figured out how to hook one leaf I liked using this variety of splotchy-dyed materials. I then tried to reproduce that leaf throughout the rest of the sixty leaves on the rug.

I didn't finish that rug until the summer of 1999 and only because my mother kept talking about that rug and how she couldn't wait to see it finished. By that time, I had moved to Illinois where I was teaching at a university, and I was at a stage of my life when I was very alone and struggling with that. So I spent many evenings in my apartment working on Jack in the Red.

In August, my mother called me and said that she had been having bad chest pains. She had to go in for immediate open heart surgery. I drove home the next day and spent a week with she and my sister before her surgery. We just went around doing normal mom and daughter stuff. We swam, sat on the porch and sipped tea, we ate out, we shopped. And, much to her delight, I brought along Jack in the Red which I had just finished binding. My sister and I had planned to attend Sauder Village camp the following week and put Jack in the Red on exhibit. But with her surgery, that plan fell through. So my good friend and fellow rug hooker, Robin Rennie, carted the rug down to Ohio and it was displayed there during the week of my mom's surgery.

My mom died six weeks later, never regaining consciousness after the surgery. Although I did not intentionally hook Jack in the Red as her tribute, that rug has become so over the years because it is bound up with memories of the end of her life and her death. Yet the rug is not a sad rug. It is a happy rug. It is about the life we lived together and shared with each other. About all those special moments in our common days together. Every autumn when I hang Jack in the Rug in my home, it reminds me of my mom and that lively and joyful autumn leaf hunt we shared on a beautiful crisp day in Michigan. It is a celebration of her life and our togetherness and all that she passed on to me as a mother and a friend.

It also reminds me of the swiftness with which life changes, with which it turns. That August and September were not only tragic and filled with loss, but it was also the moment in my life when I met the man of my dreams, whom I married a year later on August 5, 2000 - Wade Greiner. It was the moment that my life changed directions as swiftly as a blink of the eye. It was a moment that was pronounced both with loss and with love, and I really understood for the first time that life outlives death and that suffering and joy are reflections of each other. I realized that living is not really about the big things we do, the things that occasionally punctuate our lives. Rather living is about the little things we do with each other, the everyday things are what matter.

(Re)turning Meditation

There is a verse from Lamentations (5:21) which I am reflecting on today as I think about the theme 'turning' for the Monthly Reflections Rug. This verse is the basis for a traditional Jewish prayer and folk song that is chanted in Hebrew:

Hashivenu Adonai elecha v'nashuva chadesh ya meinu ki-kedem.

Help us turn back to you, O Lord, and we shall return. Renew us as in the days of old!

By turning, turning, we come 'round right

I continue to reflect on the theme "turning" for the Monthly Reflections Rug. The Shaker song Simple Gifts written by Elder Joseph in Alfred, Maine 1848, is a melody and verse I have been pondering. It is a hymn that was danced to during worship, and so it contains instructions for the dance within it:

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,

To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come out right.

The song is beautiful in its metaphor - the dance instructions are life instructions - to flex, to love, to bow and bend, to delight in our place, to be just right.

The lyrics and dance take me back to Ecclesiastes which I mentioned in my last post on the Monthly Reflections Rug. This is a very unconventional book of wisdom from ancient Israel. Instead of promoting the more traditional perspective that doing good means that good will happen to us and doing bad results in bad things happening to us, the Preacher disagrees. He had observed that all of us, whether good or bad, are born to live in a world where there is evil under the sun along with good, and our toiling does not necessarily result in good things happening to us. In the end, we are all going to die. He says, "Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and behold, all was in vain and a striving after the wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun."

This unconventional perspective has always fascinated me, although it is a perspective I disagree with. The Preacher is right that our actions cannot control whether or not good things or bad things happen to us. But he is wrong that our actions are inconsequential, that they are in vain. All that we do is not vanity. In fact, everything we do has far-reaching consequences that we may never be made aware of. Although I cannot control what will happen to me in the future, whether good or bad, it matters whether I choose to act with integrity and honesty and goodness or the opposite. What the Preacher missed in his self-absorption is that we are all interconnected. What each of us does or doesn't do can make a big difference to the lives of those around us. Our toil matters, and it matters that it is directed in a responsible and uplifting manner.

Yes, we are all subject to good and evil alike, there is no way to avoid suffering and sadness and death, but it matters greatly that we toil and turn 'round and 'round in a fashion that will sustain and encourage each other. And there is no better place to do it than where we are standing right now, as Elder Joseph sang, turning in the place "where we ought to be." And on this point I am brought back around to embrace the perspective of the Preacher who admonishes us, "Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart...Enjoy life with your spouse whom you love...Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might."

RDH Group set up for Monthly Reflections Rug

For those who plan to hook a Monthly Reflections Rug, I created a Rug Hooking Daily group forum so that we can talk about what we are doing and the challenges we face hooking this kind of rug. Please sign in to RHD and join the Monthly Reflections Rug Hookers.

Monthly Reflections Rug: Ecclesiastes 3

Last week, I decided that I would hook a monthly rug for one year based on the theme that my church announces each month as a daily reflection. I will hook each month in a 12 by 12 square on a grid of 12 squares, 3 across the width and 4 down the height, with one inch border between and outside border of 4 inches. January will be the first month on the grid (top left corner), and then February will be the second square just to the right of January, and then March will fill out the top line (top right corner).

The invitation remains open to others who want to hook their own versions of this meditation rug. So far three of us are involved. We each will hook our own reflections on the theme into the same grid pattern. And at the end of the year (next September) we will display our rugs together, maybe even in published format.

As I begin today reflecting on the theme for September "Turning," I am drawn to a favorite passage of mine from Ecclesiastes 3.

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under the skies: a time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to harvest; a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break and a time to build; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to refrain; a time to seek and a time to lose; a time to keep and a time to throw away; a time to rend and a time to sew; a time to be silent and a time to speak; a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace."

This verse seems so important to me at this time in my life, when my son starts his own life journey, leaving behind the Montessori environment for the public schools where he will start to learn to play the violin and speak Spanish among other things. My own life is shifting, my work schedule to accommodate the public school's, and things that seemed so important before are fading for me in light of my son's new life and his needs. I guess I am learning that the path of a mom is ever-changing, with many unexpected corners to turn.

Monthly Reflections Rug

I just sat down and read the bulletin for my church. We are trying something new this year - themes to reflect upon each month. The theme for this month's daily reflection and journaling is "turning."

I keep seeing in my mind's eye the turning of a leaf as it floats to the ground and have begun to wonder about a rug that could be hooked each month as reflections on these themes. I'm thinking of 12 by 12 squares, one for each month. The rug could build over the year, hooked to bring to life visually each theme and my meditation on that theme.

I think I'm going to give this a try. Is anyone else interested in trying this too? If so, we could share our thoughts and our mats with each other each month, and do something fun jointly with the rugs when we are finished in a year. Maybe we could try and publish them together in Rug Hooking Magazine or ATHA Newsletter? Let me know if this is of interest to you, and if it is, let's talk more about it.