Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Knitting and Some Thoughts on Peace

And the Pie Man progresses ...
Here is the finished back of Pie Man.



I ended it 5cm shorter than the pattern called for. The sizing seems okay on N and I am terribly worried about running out of yarn. This yarn is leftover from my sweater and was purchased in Clifden, Co. Galway, Ireland. I am planning on just doing the double moss for the sleeves rather than the cable pattern in order to have enough yarn. I think I'm going to start the sleeves next rather than the front so that if I'm running short, I can change it to a V-neck.


I'm almost done with the Claudia's Handpainted socks! Next post should bring a photo of the pair on my happy feet!

Courageous Optimism
I have been slammed once again by current events. I know that those of you in the Philly area are feeling this accutely right now. I've been meditating on how people choose their responses and actions. On how we can affect change in our lives. In our community. In our world. I've been thinking about optimism and peace. And the horrible violence and terror that infects our world. I've been searching for voices of courageous optimism.

This is from Louise Diamond's The Peace Book:108 Simple Ways to Create a More Peaceful World.

Practice the Four Principles of Peace
Community
Realize we are all in this together.
Cooperation
Work together, rather than against
each other, for joint problem solving.
Nonviolence
Practice civility in public discourse.
Refuse to support polarizing debate.
Witness
Engage in dialogue from
a place of inner peace,
honoring the values, opinions
and feelings of all parties.

This quote comes from Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning (thank you BackBou for this great piece of wisdom).

Between stimulus and reponse there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

May we all continue to search for peace in our lives.

4 comments:

Martina said...

Thanks for the thoughtful words. I love the Pie Man!

Liz K. said...

You are right; the horrible murders in Lancaster County are deeply disturbing.

I continue to have this debate, wondering is the world a safe place for my family, or have I created and loved children to be thrown to the wolves of violence?

No one told me that with the deep joys of motherhood would come with deeper terror.

Aileen said...

For the Pie Man, what kind of sleeves...short or 3/4

On another note, Matt has the same debate as you, Liz. This is why he is so conflicted when the thought of having children pops up. We cannot continue to fear and not live our lives. Just think, when our parents were raising us, they were dealing with the Cold War and Desert Storm. Their parents belore were dealing with the Korean War and World War II, and so on....Point is every generation deals with wars....and we came out just fine.

Anonymous said...

hey ann, how about running for office? you sure are a damn sight better than the idiot in the white house and the sex perverts in congress.

with the way things are in this country, it's hard not to keep a civil tongue and peaceful thoughts. but it a worthy goal for which to strive.

thanks for the reminder.

anne marie in philly