A year ago I was taking the train to Philly twice a week. The chaplaincy program lassoed twenty hours out of every week. Of necessity, I made no quilts during those months of walking the hospital floors at midnight, and reading books about spiritual care.
This March I am staying put, but the splint on my arm makes
quilting untenable. This impedes my effort to offer them as wedding gifts, or baby presents. While I have tried to appreciate the freedom I usually enjoy to pull fabric off my shelves and play with it, these dry periods put gratitude in sharp relief.
A year from now, it seems likely that I will again have the time and strength to finish pineapples, One Block Wonders, and Irish Chains. But then again, there may be unexpected difficulties around the
corner.
A friend embroidered a message for us as a wedding gift.
“I shall pass this way but once; any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”
I hope six weeks is long enough to engrave it on my heart.
