Today as I stepped into a friend’s car, she handed me a cut-out. It’s about knitting. I put it into my handbag and said I will read later. And later when I got home I read it. The article from IHT was written in a charming and amusing way. The writer talked about going on a train ride with her knitting essentials. Though a “once-in-awhile” knitter, she recounted the pleasure of such a simple and mundane activity. On the train, while you are engrossed, “you disappear and you hear” You become invisible behind the wool and needles but your brain “asserts its will to stay alive” and pick up the conversations that go on between the passengers. She ended saying “I have accomplished nothing socially or professionally useful.” It matters not. She has experienced the simple delight of being among people.
I thought to myself, how beautiful she has made of her train ride and of knitting. I can imagine myself, knitting… in a world of my own and yet senses the surrounds.
Of my friend, I thought, how kind and lovely of her to think of me and hold in good regards my simple activity. She often does in the most special way. For such a friend, my heart is warmed and cheered. She said, “I thought of you, fingers busy knitting, senses heightened, bliss…”
Knitting has been an activity I can do since physically curtailed by the dreaded myeloma. It has been my channel of inspiration. It kept me going. It was and still is my companion.
What would you say of a friend like this? She knows what would cheer me, what would be “bliss” to me, she knows my heart. She cares deeply to keep cheering me on over all these years. I thank GOD for such a friend.