Let the Light In

Ring the bells that can ring.

Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack, a crack in everything.

That’s how the light gets in.

-Leonard Cohen

It is spring, a time of renewal and nourishment. It doesn’t matter that there was frost on the ground today or that our flowers aren’t warm enough to bloom. Because nature knows when She is ready and won’t make Her appearance a moment sooner.

Not me. I’m the Queen of Horrible Timing and Wrong Shoe Wearing. I am always doing things bass-ackwards at the last minute. But that’s me and I accept that.

I have a friend who is always late. She says she will be late to her own funeral. We always told her events were an hour later than planned so she would be on time. You learn and adapt because the only person you can change is yourself.

As I am in charge of all holidays until the end of time, I’ve learned to adapt. For Easter/Ostra dinner we had an appetizer of Tuscan soup (Safeway Select…very yummy), a main course of shepherd’s pie and spinach savoy (a family tradition) and raspberry and apple puff pastries for dessert.

You see I learned from Thanksgiving that I try too hard to please everybody and then I end up 1) making more food than four families could ever hope to eat and 2) driving myself crazy trying to be perfect.

Well, this spring I said, “The heck with perfection.” I know that only the Gods are perfect. I learned this from crafting. You always make a mistake for the Gods…not that I don’t make plenty anyway. The Navaho, when weaving, deliberately weave a thread that looks like a mistake. That “mistake” keeps the rug from being perfect and serves as a path for Spirit to enter. That “mistake” allows a little light in.

This Easter/Ostra I tried letting a little light in. We combined our traditions and read from the Bible for Dad since he missed church this year. We blessed the spiritual representations of our seeds and all the kids participated. We had a wonderful dinner full of different tastes and textures. And finally, we sat back and played Wii as our family does every Sunday. After doing scads of dishes I was ecstatic to get my Pro in bowling and get a Turkey.

This year I didn’t try so hard and I think the air of stress was missing that usually hangs around the holidays. It was a really nice day. I was tired afterward but not wiped.

In knitting news, my LYS asked me to make this scarf from Sheep Shop. It is a delightful knit. I had to get used to starting on a purl row and my knit rows being evens…but after that everything is going well. I think I will make this again. I don’t have the label for this yarn so I have no idea what it is. But I love the way it is making up and as my LYS said, “It is nice to challenge yourself with something new once and a while.”

I like lace, it lets in the light. :)

Happy crafting,

Ruinwen
:)