Friday, December 12, 2008

magical transformation

"To set up a tree in the house, to bake special cookies, take time from work, set aside money, to gather in whomever we can of friends and family, to surround ourselves with special music of great power; these things create a radical change in what is ordinary in our lives. It is a magic time." John Vannorsdall-former Yale chaplain
I love to decorate my home. I greet each new season with new decorations and Christmas is definitely one of my favorite times of year. This year, I have a confession to make, I decorated early. I have this thing about not wanting to rush the holidays and I was making every effort not to crowd out or rush Thanksgiving...but I did decorate for Christmas during the week of Thanksgiving. (gasp!) I did so because when I looked ahead on my calendar I knew I wouldn't have the time to do so (the way I wanted to) after Thanksgiving...we had friends coming in from out of town, basketball tournaments and a Christmas play all on the schedule. I'm so glad I did this. My neighbor came over the day before Thanksgiving and saw some things hanging in the windows. "I hope those are turkeys and not wreaths", she said. We laughed because she knows how I am. She knows how much I like to decorate. The whole decorating thing takes time. I have a lot of Christmas decorations. Every room gets some kind of magical touch for the holidays. That kind of transformation takes time. I was glad to not have rushed through it. I really enjoyed having the ability to put up things at my leisure.
That makes me think about my knitting. Yes, this is a 'stitching' blog and I know some of you come here for the knitting. I have been knitting (really), but I don't have any finished products to show you. You see I'm in the process. I've been working on my February Lady Sweater since October. I'm on the sleeves but still not done. My mom has such wisdom and she's been encouraging me to enjoy the process. That's fine when the process takes a week or two, but when it stretches out longer than 2 months I find myself getting a bit impatient. But she's right. Life is all about enjoying the process. Allowing myself the mental space to sit back and enjoy where I am in whatever area is in process. Just like I really enjoyed my decorating, I want to enjoy (or at least not fight) the process of progress in other areas of my life. Including these never ending sleeves.

I saw a friend yesterday. We haven't talked in a while...it's been a hard thing. When I saw her, she was driving into the parking lot that I happened to be driving out. I waved to her as our vehicles passed but she didn't even turn her head to look my way. I understand. She's in process too. Be patient with others and with yourself this holiday season. It's all a process and everyone's in different places along the way. God promises that He is in the business of 'transforming us from glory to glory". Transformation takes time. Be patient with each other...who knows which glory spot that person is on and which one they're headed to next. And enjoy the decorations! They totally remind us that this is a magical time!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Continue to allow God to direct your ways as well as your blog; He has taught you well to share your heart and thoughts,and you are so open to His voice; never lose that "first love", the Lord. I am so proud of your godly talents and the way you share them. May you always be teachable and a teacher. All this to say I LOVE you and your blogs.

From All Stitched Up said...

Your decorating is beautiful. I'm jealous that you are all set. I think all the shopping and fuss is more fun with the decorations. The candy cane door swag has given me a great idea. Happy holidays !

Dany said...

I love your decorations!!! And I think that you've done a SUPER-TREE!!!
WOWWWW!!!!

Anonymous said...

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!" =0) I love the tree & decorations - so beautiful!!!!

Merry Christmas!!! Miss you guys!

Love,
Kelly

Christina said...

"Life is all about enjoying the process." I love that. It is applicable to so many areas of life! Maybe I'll make myself a little impromptu calligrapy projoct of that to hang on my fridge as a reminder!

Denise said...

Everything looks lovely. I always put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving! I don't think you decorated early at all ;-)

Mary said...

Beautiful and so amazing what you accomplish.

Kristyn Knits said...

I'm so thankful you decorated early! I was blessed by your home. and Mark was inspired by it...we have Christmas every where, "just like the Qs."

friendship is hard work. feeling understood, heard, valued and respected is important. keep your spirits up-you're a great friend!!

Anonymous said...

we were blessed and inspired by the decorations during our visit, but i was more so with your words of encouragement about patience with others, and about life and our faith being a process where we are all at different places within. Merry Christmas to the Q's!