IN WHICH WE PLAY VARSITY BALL...

On a cold and very wet Saturday my guild sisters and I went to Goshen, Indiana for an all-day class with Miss Wendy Moore.  We are piloting a very intense (yet gorgeous) piece that has a HUGE batch of delicious threads, a hundred-plus page stitch guide, and more fun than a Christmas morning with Jeffrey Dean Morgan in the kitchen making waffles.

I confess to feeling extremely apprehensive as we prepared for Wendy's visit, and I promised myself that if I fell behind or got overwhelmed I would just zip it and ask for help later and in private...where the shame of being a boob could just wash over me and I could exorcise my stitchy demons quietly.

But the planets must have been in alignment, because I managed to keep up, follow along and stitch, and enjoy the process immensely. 

As much as I would love to tell you that this is a reflection of my improved skill set, it was due to the excellence of the instructions, instructor, and company of my friends (who are all beautiful stitchers).  Instead of getting intimidated by it all, I decided to breathe deeply, pay attention, enjoy every stitch, and take a moment to drink in the view.

Is there anything better than a group of wonderful, like-minded people gathering together to do something we all love?  It really is like medicine to me...making me feel calm and peaceful and happy and inspired and...happy.

I know I've been throwing that word around a lot lately, but I really do think that recognizing it and honoring even small moments of it each day are critical to me at this point.  Physically, I am really struggling, and I know that big changes are just around the corner, but emotionally?  Emotionally, I am determined to keep myself as positive as I can be so that I don't go back to the bottom of the well with the big black dog threatening to bite.  I don't ever want to feel as sad or scared or (dare I use the d-word?) as I did at this time last year.  I realize that it was situational and probably related to everything going on around me, but it was...brutal.

But that's the past.  And I want my thoughts of the past to focus more on funny happy things so that I can have a funny happy future.

So...today we will cozy up with fuzzy blankets, cups of damn good, and lots of TeeVee and stitching.  Rich has just returned with a copy of the Times, so I can look forward to seeing all of the ads for what's to come next Friday.

Happy, happy Sunday, Dearies.  Thanks for indulging Mary Poppins here with the "all sunshine and rainbows all the time" phase we're in.  I'll try to dial it down a bit...even I am getting a little nauseated by the sap .

Enjoy your day...do something fun...yadda yadda yadda.