Love

Possibly the most often written about subject in history… and for some reason until a few years ago I really didn’t understand it.

The jewelry industry would have us believe that we fall in love and live happily ever after, as long as we continue to buy diamonds.  The candy companies imply that love can best be expressed with chocolate (OK, that is at least partially true, especially if it includes caramel!).  Hallmark seems to think that all mothers are perfect, and everyone knows that red roses symbolize love.  For parents, love is automatic.  Right?

No.  In fact, love is not a feeling and it is not an emotion.  Love is a choice and a commitment that has to be made and reaffirmed, often (as in the case of parenting children with challenges) many more times than one would ever have thought possible. 

Believing this has helped me understand that it’s all right to feel frustrated and angry occasionally.  It’s expected that I might be repulsed by behaviors.  It’s understandable that sometimes I feel like I’ve failed.  Those are the times I need to remember to love myself, and then re-commit to the choice I made to love another.

From time to time I have to re-commit to a knitting project.  Even when I’ve made a good match of yarn and pattern, I get tired of knitting at a particular gauge for a long time and need to switch to working on a project with bigger or smaller needles to prevent repetitive stress injury.  Other times I find I need or want to start a new project before finishing the one I’m knitting.  Either way, a project is languishing through no fault of its own.   I hardly ever have more than three or four ‘live’ projects at a time now, and occasionally I’ll use a new pattern or yarn as incentive to get something finished up.  When I finish this little throw blanket, I’m going to love it.  Unless, of course, it’s August…

KnitPicks Wool of the Andes Bulky on US 9 'Harmony' needles.