Knitting Therapy

This weekend, I was blessed to hear wonderful news regarding a very dear friend, she and her husband are expecting their first child! My heart is very full with the wellspring of emotion that a new life represents. I am so excited for her, and I hope to be able to share some of her joy during the next months!

Then, unexpectedly, I found my eyes full of tears...tears that I could not stop. I was not crying, exactly, and it took me some time to process this emotion. It was one that I had experienced before, a deeply personal and painful one. An emotion that I do not prefer to face, but the tears were there...forcing me to examine them.

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Over the course of my life, I have always prided myself that I was not "a crybaby," but my husband teases me that I have waterhoses attached to my tearducts. Granted, I blame Hunny, because there was something about developing the relationship that we have together, that broke down the walls that I had surrounding my tears, and now the littlest things turns those hoses on...even when I'm not particularly sad. Thankfully, his shoulders is usually available to soak thru...

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My first thought, as I felt the tears this weekend, was that I had to get some yarn. Not in a "shopping" sense, but rather as a focal point of this emotion. I have knitted several baby blankets over the years. Honestly, I have no idea if most of them are used, but I know that the act of knitting for me is a way to prepare for a place for the coming child. I think of these blankets as being a way to put my arms around that precious child, and surround them with my love though I am miles away.

I never expected when I picked up a pair of knitting needles during college, on a whim, that they would provide me with such a gift. As discussed here, I have found knitting to be a gentle therapy, allowing me to transform my pain into hope, praying with each stitch...finally creating a circle of love to surround my family.