It's what I can do...

It's been an interesting week - with some real high spots and some very difficult spots as well.  I have two friends going through two very difficult and painful experiences.  It's hard to love people and know they're hurting.  I want to help and it turns out that something I can do to help is...knit for them.

I've been so disconnected from my knitting.  I'm working on leg warmers for DS2 (the 7 year old) - he dances ballet and tap, and is actually dancing in a regional touring company of the Nutcracker and wants leg warmers.  I have one done (green, of course) and one about 1/3 done.  It's been fun, I haven't knit in SO long, and it's lovely to reconnect with it.

I had an interesting short coaching session with this woman (obviously in part a marketing thing, which was fine as I may end up buying what she's selling) and she made a point that's REALLY been making me think about my choices - the difference between "self" time and "off" time.  What I seem to go to for "self" time - the computer - is really "off" time, zone-out time.  I realized that I'm not entirely sure what IS self-time for me, and it occurred to me - clearly photography is, both the process of taking pictures but also the editing, but knitting is too.

So, back to my friends - I'm knitting one friend a hat, and another will get a scarf, and both will probably get more of these items as we're looking at...well, not a marathon I think, but way more than a sprint to health for both of them.  I can't heal them, I can't fix things for them, I can't make it better, but I can, with my own two hands, create something for them that is not only beautiful, but also tangibly helpful.  And, in the process, I can start to regenerate my own self a bit.