Warm Up

I am supposed to be typing my overdue Christian Mothers newsletter right now. My internal (Patrician) calendar is always late, and in my mind I had another week to work on it, until a phone call made me realize it had to be in the mail today. I am still the student handing in late papers.

A glance out of the window showed my pussy willow in full catkins. After years of stagnance the branches are lengthened to a couple feet, and pulled toward the sky. I am trying to imagine my bush at the 20 foot height it will become. Although I saw no tulip tips in the Mary Garden at church last Sunday, I see two remnant tulips about five inches high in my flower bed in the side yard. I may not get blooms, since I dug out most of the bulbs last year, and what I see now is either a damaged or stray bulb.

One of the blogs which I follow is Foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. (http://www.foothillsofthegreatsmokymountains.blogspot.com/)  I first found this site in a search for a dishcloth pattern from http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/.  Foothills has a gorgeous header photo of the Smoky Mountains. Recently she posted pictures of some of the projects she has knitted. I enjoy her pictures, often done against a backdrop of nature. I enjoy the vibrant colors she has used in her projects. When I looked at her site a few days ago it felt like spring. I was also intrigued by her participation in a Christian knitters group.  When I have more time I can investigate that group.

Lion Brand had an article on picking up stitches in their latest e-newsletter. I scanned the article thinking I would get tips for a shawl pattern I plan on making. I am beginning to see why people who use the internet need to bookmark things. I cannot use the information from the article immediately, but I might need it in the future. Better save it! Then, just as our houses collect stuff that needs to be weeded out, every once in awhile we need to go through our computers and get rid of the things we do not need. How many computer storage sheds do you have?

Knitting

I decided I would take the plunge and join Ravelry, an on-line knitting group. Once again I am spurred on by seeing a new knitting pattern on another member's web site, which I simply must have!

St. Augusta was filled with spring today. The sun was out, and the neighbor's cat was on the prowl. The black labs next door were having hissy fits when they saw the cat walk through our yard. I had to go out and investigate when I did not see the meter man's car, or the mail man, or the UPS truck, or a garbage truck, or the  other neighbors working at their shed. I forced Gracie Cat to stay in the house when I left for town later on. She gets nasty when her territory is invaded, and the other cat was larger, and probably male.

I purchased some wool yarn for a prayer shawl this afternoon. I am under the weather, and my mind is half gone, so I am thinking that I probably needed two more skeins than I purchased, since I am using a different yarn than the pattern called for. I did comparisons in the store, but who knows what I was really doing when I did it!

Friday

Yesterday I finished a baby bootie using a pattern from The Knitter's Bible. I successfully used the M1 increase from both the front and back, and did a simple turn. Today I will attempt to stitch the seam. Next I think I will start a beret from the sport weight pale blue Brown Sheep wool that I purchased years ago from The Weaver's Cabin. May as well use it up while I am trying something new. I found a shamrock dishcloth pattern from http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/, but decided not to buy the green yarn yet.

This week PBS did a rerun from Frontline on Dignitas, a group which promotes assisted suicide. The program included footage of an actual suicide from their "suicide apartment" in Switzerland. For a suicide, the man certainly required a large number of people to give him assistance. Surely, with that much support, it would have been just as easy to help him to live. The man choosing to take his own life did not appear to be in great pain or disability. Nor did the death seem very dignified as I watched the man call for apple juice to wash down the apparently unpleasant tasting sedative cocktail. His wife wished him a good journey before she left the room, and I kept thinking, a journey to where? He did not believe in an afterlife, only that we reamin alive as long as someone remembers our name (sic). There is no journey between life and death. We are only living, or dead. When we are dead we face God for our judgment, heaven, hell or purgatory and then heaven.

This issue lead me to a conversation I once had with Fr. John Mary Burns, O.C.D., regarding the existence of God. Father said somthing to the effect of, "Why not give God a try? If He is not real, you have nothing to loose. Do you want to take the chance of denying Him if He is real?" We have been presented with many proofs that God exists in philosophy, in miracles, and in Christ's coming to earth. On the other hand, who can proove that God does not exist? We are so busy trying to discredit the proofs for God, that we forget about the proofs against Him, and the "What if He does exist?". Just in case He does, I wouldn't piddle around with assisted suicide.

"At the end, forever, you and I will be in Heaven or Hell, period." Fr. John Corapi

"But the master of a slave has by law the right of life and death over him...." St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin.