Month: July 2018

I believe that God loves us and that he send angels to help us make our way in this world. Not necessarily the loveable, wing-seeking Clarence of It’s A Wonderful Life or the dashing Cary Grant as Dudley in The Bishop’s Wife, but in other forms. Sometimes our angels are people known to us who step in to  help or encourage or guide or simply to love us through our current difficulties. And sometimes God sends perfect strangers to minister to our needs or even save our lives. I am thankful I got to meet one of those angels on Earth on Thursday.

My friend and her mother were out to lunch with me on Thursday  just catching up on last weekend’s activities and enjoying one another’s company.  The restaurant wasn’t too busy, but the room we were in was full. We got a table with a view and we’re enjoying it and the good food before us.

Then my friend began coughing and holding the napkin to her mouth. She kept coughing. I asked if something went down the wrong pipe. She shook her head, took a sip of her soda which bubbled back out, stood up and motioned to her throat. (We later learned carbonation and choking aren’t a good combination.) I stood up and looked around a room that had almost emptied by now. I started to do the Heimlich Maneuver, which I had seen done but never done myself.  It wasn’t working. She was still choking.

Then a young woman from the one other table in the room was at my side. She said she was a military trained EMT and she could help. She worked on my friend, even lifting her off the floor at one point,  until finally the piece of chicken that was lodged in her throat came out. Then this angel took my friend into the restroom to clean her up and make sure all was okay while her mother and I tried to absorb what had just happened. My friend kept talking afterwards about how kind and gentle the young woman had been.

I firmly believe God put that angel at the table next to us to save my friend’s life on Thursday. Her quick and calm action was exactly what we needed. Her gentle kindness after it was over simply confirms who sent her. I am remembering her in my prayers and thanking God for sending her. Her actions saved my friend’s life.  I know my friend and her mother are including her in their prayers, too.

I have been in a rut…a big deep rut where I simply couldn’t write. For over six weeks the only writing I did was the two posts here. I didn’t touch any of my stories and didn’t hear any objections from my characters.

I have found spinning has helped get my creative juices flowing in the past so I sat down and began spinning. I didn’t even pretend I was going to write each day. I took my third cup of coffee into my spinning wheel and opened the shutters each morning to see the world outside while I pulled fiber out of my stash and spun.

I saw a plump gray white-chested squirrel hop from spot to spot in the yard to dig up morsels that he looked happily surprised to find right where he’d left them earlier. He  munched until his cheeks couldn’t hold another bite and then he scampered off to his next adventure.

I watched the steam rise up from the pavement like a blanket of fog after a quick shower in the heat of the afternoon raced through. A fat bumble bee found the Holly bush fascinating as it went from leaf to leaf spreading pollen. One early morning when the dew was still glistening on the grass, a scrawny yellow fox with a tail bigger than his body sauntered out of the woods to sit down in the middle of the circle and scratch his ears like a dog. Then after stretching out a few minutes on the pavement he strolled down the driveway and into the woods. The little buck came to feast on the special grass in the front yard until his friends showed up, then, not wanting them to know how sweet it was, he chased them into the woods. Lots of days the only activity was from the mailman or the new automated garbage trucks.

I watched all kinds of activity with only the whir of the ceiling fan echoed by my spinning wheel as yard after yard of beautiful colorful yarn filled my bobbins. By the time I was ready to write again, after the loving encouragement of friends, I could only do so briefly because I was now on a quest. I decided to fill every empty bobbin I had, saving one empty for plying, before I changed my focus. So I did, I spun enough yarn to fill all fourteen of them! Hundreds of yards of single ply yarn plus hundreds more of two ply yarn ready to be used and putting only a small dent in my fiber stash.

I’m ready to write again…..I managed to spin my way out of my rut…if you look at the new picture on my home page of the final results you might think I’ve been spinning out of control…but try not to judge me 😁