What I Don't Write About
I watch crime shows. Law & Order (all of them) and Without a Trace. I like the way that everything goes from chaos to something more-or-less orderly in an hour. Makes life seem manageable. I'm a fan of Project Runway who has been suckered into America's Next Top Model. I now hate Tyra Banks. I'm also a big Adult Swim watcher. Strange mix.
I've been trying to finish Lolita, but the book just bores me. I can't start the next one (The Time Traveler's Wife--I'm not-officially-doing-that-knitting-reading-along) until I finish this one because I have this weird "one real novel at a time" thing. I have started the second of Madeline L'Engle's time novels, The Wind in the Door, and will probably finish it before I finish Lolita. It's a "real novel," but I can read it 'cause it's preparation for a class I'm considering. That's my story and you know the rest!
I love what I do. I get to teach every day, and that's always fun, even when my lesson goes crazy and I'm scrambling inside to figure out what to do next. I'm surrounded by people who are interested in words and stories and learning, and that is always stimulating. I'm privileged to watch my students develop as thinkers, readers, and writers. I work with a core group of folks who challenge my thinking and are willing to put up with my blunt and vocal eruptions at the wierdest moments. "Politic and cautious" I often am not, "full of high sentence" always.
And then there's the other teaching. I get to teach people how to do cool things with their knitting, like making holes and turning heels and crafting little boxes. I teach them and they share their lives with me--what a blessing! How wonderful, too, to have a second living room so near, where I can escape from the pressures of my (still wonderful) work and know that there will always be someone to talk with, laugh with, and, of course, knit with. I find inspiration in the yarn shop, not in the yarn, but in the people who move in its walls.
There are the members of my spiritual community (something I don't ever blog about), whose prayers I feel every single day; I only hope that I can return to them even a small measure of what they have given me. I am so often so unworthy. When we meet, we share the trials and the joys of our time apart. We give each other strength to fulfill our mission to be God in the world, to see God in all things, and to love in as perfect a way as we can.
You get to see my family periodically. I don't see them as much as I'd like, but they're always with me too. I don't write about them much; I feel that it would be wrong to share too much of their lives with you. They didn't ask me to write this blog, and I choose to keep them (mostly) private. My sister comments from time to time (hi, Em!), and her comments are as sassy as she is in real life. I wish you could meet them all--they are loving and creative and giving and solid and everything good in the world. Everything.
Same with Steve. I keep him (mostly) hidden; he hasn't asked me to, but he deserves his privacy too. I will tell you this, though--he's a MONSTER knitter. You'll see what I mean soon. He'll tell you that I taught him, but he had it figured out long before I put a needle in his hand. He watched me for months, and that part of his brain that is so good at figuring out how things go together in space just understood exactly what to do. See how I'm hiding him? I'm not telling you about those little sweet-nothing things that happen with people. He's so good at those. I love him.
When I woke up this morning, I wanted to write (a little) about the things I don't write about. They make me who and what I am. Tomorrow I will celebrate my 37th year on this earth and those 37 years have brought me right here. It's a good place to be. I know that I am blessed. Especially when gas prices are this low.