A Contemplative Life

 Contemplating what drives someone to kill another person because of racial/ethnic/sexuality-gender hatred, and what if instead of hating the murderer,  we loved them? It's probably not what they want. They might prefer to be feared. Or loathed. They might act in heinous manners to further their malicious agenda, hoping their devious actions will continue to stir chaos, which could encourage additional misdeeds. I'm stitching hearts into little sections of quilt sandwiches, pondering the murder of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas earlier this week. Slowly affixing this quilt into one coherent cozy, kind of the opposite of what the person who shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in the chest did. And yet, I'm trying to not project anger on that ICE agent. I'm trying to extend grace while attempting to understand why ending a person's life seemed to matter more than allowing them to live. You might say, "Well you didn't know Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, so it's...

My Tears of Joy Quilt under which I was sitting this morning, feeling grateful for having sewn it.    I'm currently reading aloud Can't Be Done Alone: The Hawk Book Five . Two chapters in, I came across a couple of paragraphs that made me cry. Below sits the chapter in whole, but I've made those paragraphs bold, because as I read them, I realized some truths about our lives on this planet that don't seem to change, especially when set alongside mathematician Emmy Noether , who left Germany in 1933 after the Nazi government dismissed Jews from university positions, or Edith Eger , a Hungarian/American psychologist and Holocaust survivor. When dictators or those wishing to be dictators frame this or that segment of society as unworthy, they are hoping to instill intrinsic hatred to a degree so their followers will assume no one deserves love and respect. As Eger put it, guards at the concentration camps where she was imprisoned were 'brainwashed', their youths as...

I came across the above Old Testament passage last night and was struck at how complete was the prophet's admonishments. Those widowed, orphaned, foreigners, and the needy are all mentioned, as well as a warning not to engage in evil schemes. I made a Bluesky post earlier, passing along these sentiments. I have sent these verses of Scripture to Mike Johnson, John Thune, and others. When coupled with Christ's words from Matthew 11:28, 29, and 30, how can anyone who claims God as their King justify cruelties to those most vulnerable?   If you are so compelled, pass along these verses to GOP politicians, as most claim to believe in God. As their sister in Christ, I too will share these words. 

Written earlier today before the granddaughters woke.   I foresee plenteous machine stitching in the near future. I tried some hand-sewing this week and boy my shoulder was cranky. I am in the treatment pipeline for said right shoulder, but medical stuff is slow as snot these days, yet I am hopeful to be back in my usual routine of nightly hand-stitching as soon as is feasibly possible. (I might sneak in some surreptitious hand-stitching merely to have completed the necessary blocks to snap a photo of Alexandria quilt progress. Not that I am planning to tackle it as soon as I can sew with ease, but one of these days I'll get back to that beauty!) January 2025; the long sides aren't sewn together, but the center is! It's hard wanting to work on something that in the end causes pain. The grandgirls have been using my machines, which stirs within me the desire to don earplugs and headphones and create in a manner that defies belief, when one's belief is that sitting on the...

Hmm, I guess this is how life is now; dark, cramped, alone. Yes, imagine you are Owl Chicken; one moment you're trying to get comfortable for sleep, then next you're shoved aside, falling down a sharp drop into darkness. Utter darkness. Solitary darkness, although you can hear peeps and tiny clucks above you. The rest of the flock is above you, but now your world is altered. Is that how those abducted by ICE feel in detention centers? Snatched from their lives, they languish in facilities where their humanity is devalued by deplorable living conditions. Or how trans veterans are being forced into retirement and denied full benefits after loyally serving this nation. Any number of situations can be listed, people being maltreated for a variety of reasons that the current administration have imposed due to cruelty, bias, and worse. The current American administration is displaying distinct hatred to segments of this nation without remorse or apology, despite what God made know th...