As I kid I was often told to “mind my knitting.” Given the number of questions I asked, unending and often personal, as well as my willingness to go where no kid should be going (metaphorically of course), the clichéd advice was appropriate. Looking back, the cliché still comes to mind, although I rarely hear it used. Knitting was a pastime that most women and girls did where I grew up. Kids riding in the car or bus to school would occasionally knit, more importantly they would discuss which was the best type of knitting for whatever project they were working on. It was not unusual to see someone working on a piece for the “special” person in her life.
In our age of no limits, the idea that anything could be off limits or out of bounds seems odd. Everything is possible! Anything can be done! Information and data are, or should be, universally available. Thanks to the web and search engines, the quantity of both are overwhelming. The limits of yesterday have been destroyed in our rush to the future.
Life keeps reminding me to focus. Not all things are good all the time. More specifically, I am called to focus on my mission, my choices, and my actions! In order to do this, the struggle continues.
Focus means letting others have the same freedom that we have within us. Bluntly but, I love helping people know what to do. The line between suggestions and telling them is, often in my mind, very thin. When I read someone telling Divinity that s/he should “cut down their leaders as you did Oreb and Zeeb, their princes to nothings like Zebah and Zalmunna,” (Psalm 83.11) it sounds like something I wished I had said!
Focus means being fully and completely in the moment at hand. I can reflect and learn from yesterday while also forgiving myself and letting go. I can acknowledge and embrace my fears while staying in the moment instead of trying to rush to the future.
In short, I can mind my knitting.
