Confusion, Confucius, Centering

I have arthritis in my hands, particularly my thumbs. This causes problems with spinning and knitting or with any pinching motion, as you might imagine. I really can't spin or knit with my braces on--the Velcro is more of a problem than the casting material. Velcro and fiber don't mix. I finally decided to try the HandEze therapeutic gloves, the ones with the three-quarter fingers.

HandEze's website directed me to Hancock Fabrics as a local retail source. I called them. They don't have them. I called Jo-Ann's and The Lamb's Ear in Tacoma, Shibori Dragon Yarns and Yorkshire Yarns in Lakewood, The Yarn Garden in Gig Harbor, and Canvas Works in Olympia, and nobody has them! I finally gave up and ordered them online directly from the company, but they never sent me back anything with the price on it or the shipping charges. We'll see, I guess. I need them regardless. Wonder when they'll come.

My young friend Diana, whom I believe I've mentioned here earlier, recommended a Tim O'Brien book called The Things They Carried about the VietNam war. It's fiction (supposedly) and consists of a number of short stories, each complete in itself but related to the others, and it is absolutely stunning. I've read two of the stories. I've never been drawn to war books and am not now, in general, but this guy is a truly brilliant writer, one of the best of our times. His prose is subtle and terse, his insights profound, his narratives highly compelling. I highly recommend reading ANYTHING BY TIM O'BRIEN. Amazon, here I come!

We are a week into the Great Fifty Days of Easter and I'm studying Islam, Palestinian history, and the roots of Hinduism. I'm going back to church after a fairly long hiatus. I'm praying in so many different ways right now that Christianity has been taking a back seat in that category, but I'm going back to church and back to the Daily Office (Morning Prayer and Compline with Daily Office Lectionary scripture readings) just to keep myself grounded in my own roots. I think it would be easy to become Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Jainist, Sikh, Confucian, Shinto, Wiccan, and especially Baha'i with these studies I'm doing. Immersion learning involves much more than the intellect, which is what I want to be doing, even if partially this first year. Next year will be 'way more intense immersion-wise, but it needs to be begun now.

Spinning keeps me sane and centered. Knitting keeps me frustrated. The possibility of weaving on somebody else's loom keeps me hopeful. All of these are necessary. My friend Tom used to say, "It takes two things for a person to grow: she must be uncomfortable and excited." I am indeed both.