I love that you knit something not "practical" but comforting and warm. It makes total sense. Also, the story of Mr. Bun is so touching! Doing little things that convey love is so important for ourselves and others. Yesterday, I had a long ADR session for a short film I'm working on. It was exhausting and also caused me to miss lunch. Afterwards, I bought a sandwich and a blueberry muffin. I don't often buy sweet baked goods, but I needed comforting food. So I treated myself. When I got home, I gave Ruth a long hug and told her I loved her. Also, our dog Coco greeted me as if I'd been gone a month. Such a blessing! Thanks for your sharing.
My daughter provided a softness that I’m most grateful for. I’m visiting her husband and her, and yesterday I awoke with excruciating pain in my neck and shoulder. She came in and gave me such a therapeutic neck rub. Her soft hands on my neck and my back drove the pain away. Her soft hands, and the love that goes with them, have over the years soothed and comforted me, and inspired me. I am blessed.
A soft, needed and appreciated kindness is to knit chemo caps and donate them at your local oncology office. Chemotherapy and hair loss causes really cold heads! Our office has an artificial tree that knitters or crocheters can clothespin a donated hat to, for someone to adopt. And they are appreciated year round, not just in cooler months. There are many patterns online if you search.
I started this yesterday, but got distracted as I often do and now it’s gone so I will tell the story again. We were having Bible study on Saturday and one of our people was absent because she had a serious surgery and so we just decided to send her a picture of all of us. One of our other members had been coloring cards, little note cards, that she brought to show us and so each of us took one of the note cards and wrote our healing friend a note. We tried our hardest to make our phone balance on its side so that all of us could be in the picture but it kept falling and we kept trying and it kept falling and we kept trying... in the end. It stood up and we took our picture. It was a lovely picture because hopefully she could see our hearts through the smiles on our faces from laughing at our attempts to balance that darn camera!!!! We sent the picture with the cards to add some softness to her healing journey... then I came home and worked for hours planting a flower garden. I had dug it up and tilled the soil a week or two before. I might’ve worked for six hours in that garden, and when I was almost done, one of my neighbors, walked by and said I really like this garden, and so those are my soft edge stories from this weekend. Just a group of people sending thinking of you notes to a hurting person, and time spent planting flowers that will touch people that I will likely never meet!
The softness I created yesterday was just listening...listening to my neighbor talk about all her trouble, listening to a widower tell me about his wife, and listening to the thoughts in my own heart. I just have to say the best softness I ever felt was the hospice care both my Daddy and Momma received. They spoke words of kindness, words of comfort, and words of how to let go.
To create soft places in this world of hard edges, I share this prayer a friend posted. I feel it strongly, especially since I have several family members living in Israel and 7 nephews who have been activated to army service and one waiting for his orders:
A Prayer for our Planet🧡🙏🧡
I now send pure luminous white light to the most dark places in the world where there is chaos, retaliation, killing, pain, suffering, hunger, fear and sadness.
May harmony and love be restored beginning with me. Please do not allow my grief or perception to contribute to the mindset of duality where beliefs exist that “You are either with me or against me,” or “If I am right, then you are wrong.”
May my inner balance, peace and unconditional love support and promote a higher expression of oneness, unity, forgiveness and unconditional love for ALL.
I too am a knitter of only practical items but your words have me reconsidering what goes on my needles next and the need for soft edges in our crazy, broken but beautiful world.
Thank you for this thoughtful prompt, Carrie. As soon as I finished reading it, I knew exactly what bit of softness I was being inspired to do at that very moment—call a dear friend who is deep into dementia and probably does not know who I am anymore. But we had some sweet moments of talking and laughing together. She always mentions how grateful she is for her life and all it’s held for her. She does not recall the stunningly beautiful and mysterious paintings she’s created nor remember anything about them, even those hanging on the walls of her room. But her gratitude and laughter shine through the depths of her faded memory and she finds joy in simply being alive. Actually, it was she who softened my edges today for which I am deeply grateful.
Oh sharon, this is a tenderness. How souls shine even as memory fade. You remember for your both, and that has a softness too. Blessings on the phone call, on the paintings on all you remember and to moments of light and laughter today.
I love your little lambs Carrie! Losing my mom almost a year ago, ( I can’t believe it) my sweetheart had noticed the happiness draining from me. I asked him about taking a trip to Bloomington to see you at your Album release concert and he agreed. I couldn’t believe he was willing to do the 9 hour trip there and 9 hours back. He told me “I love to see you happy and you are at your happiest seeing Carrie Newcomer.”. It touched me so much to hear that from him. He’s so special. I couldn’t thank him enough driving home afterwards. What a wonderful time we had not just seeing you but just being together. Coming up in May, I’ve got our tickets for Michigan ( Ann Arbour) and he does this all for me so I suggested we make it a weekend trip since your show is on a Friday and he can go and Golf in Michigan. Golfing is what brings him happiness and his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree what I mentioned it! I look forward to planning it out our trip together. I’m thankful to have such a wonderful sweetheart!!!
My attempts to create soft edges are simple reminders to individuals to look within and to “Know Thyself”. To consciously and patiently focus on the breath and feel the simple yet profound peace of the moment.
We are gifted life one breath at a time, one moment at a time, for a lifetime.
Recently, I asked an artist friend of mine if she could do a small painting of our pet Cockatiel, Cornelius. She has been going through a rough patch in her life, and doing her art grounds her. In a thank you note to her, I included a feather from Cornelius' preening pile, along with the phrase " May all your troubles fly away!"
She was very touched by this gesture, and I hope it helps each time she looks at the feather.
So lovely…..a feather, a symbol of spirit, how perfect and soft and generous of spirit my friend. Softeness often encourages softness in return…and on it goes, one feather at a time.
I wish could choose the soft and lovely today, but I am angry for the ruthless destruction and kidnapping on Israel's southern border. I find myself wishing vengeance, rather than forgiveness, because it seems irresponsible to ignore the brutality of people driven by hate. I pray, rather, for justice and mercy for me and all those ensnared in this ugly war.
Thank you for your honest sharing. Your anger is totally understandable. I respect that you use your anger as a motivation to pray for justice and mercy.
There are always innocent loses and suffering in war….grievous and terrible, particularly the children. It is a honorable and humble prayer, to pray for the expanding of the heart and opening of the whole world to healing. It is difficult to do when anger narrows our vision, because that is the nature of rage. The Black mystic theologian, Howard Thurman, wrote that hate is indeed a form of resistance, but it is the least effective form, because it eventually cannot be contained to one person or one group of people, it gets into our hearts and spirits and often expands in ways that harm us on a soul deep level. He acknowledged our right to our anger, the importance of our being enraged righteously….but it can be transformed, and channeled into acts for good and justice. As a quaker, I do not believe there is ever “redemptive violence” there is only violence which echos and continues for generations. I hear your anger….it is always a difficult practice in such times to eventually find the place in your heart (that will wait until you are ready - because sometimes it takes awhile), to transform that anger into action for good, to allow your broken heart to be broken open and not apart. Thanks for your honest post….it is a question for our times….how to we live in these challenging times, how do we “be” the change we most want to see in this weary troubled world.
The Church of the Moment
I stop and wave to the driver
Before I cross the street.
To pick up some provisions,
And chat a while with the clerks.
Susan comes to assist me
to find an item I'm missing
As I thank her she laughs
and flashes a smile.
The small things we share
In an instant of time
A smile and a handshake
my, you're sure looking fine
Could the patterns we trace
In a single day's run
Embroider a cloth of a
Righteous congregation
Could a matter of seconds
In life's endless movement
Open the door
To a church of the moment.
These casual encounters
can light daily candles.
Close up the distances
warm up our souls.
A stranger offers help,
a gesture of kindness.
So direct and sincere
flashes of grace
The small things we share
In an instant of time
Won't you please have this seat
The pleasure's all mine
These connections we form
While we go on our ways
Greeting folks old and new as we
Pass through our days
Just a matter of seconds
In life's endless movement
Can open the door
To a church of the moment.
2023
I love that you knit something not "practical" but comforting and warm. It makes total sense. Also, the story of Mr. Bun is so touching! Doing little things that convey love is so important for ourselves and others. Yesterday, I had a long ADR session for a short film I'm working on. It was exhausting and also caused me to miss lunch. Afterwards, I bought a sandwich and a blueberry muffin. I don't often buy sweet baked goods, but I needed comforting food. So I treated myself. When I got home, I gave Ruth a long hug and told her I loved her. Also, our dog Coco greeted me as if I'd been gone a month. Such a blessing! Thanks for your sharing.
My daughter provided a softness that I’m most grateful for. I’m visiting her husband and her, and yesterday I awoke with excruciating pain in my neck and shoulder. She came in and gave me such a therapeutic neck rub. Her soft hands on my neck and my back drove the pain away. Her soft hands, and the love that goes with them, have over the years soothed and comforted me, and inspired me. I am blessed.
A soft, needed and appreciated kindness is to knit chemo caps and donate them at your local oncology office. Chemotherapy and hair loss causes really cold heads! Our office has an artificial tree that knitters or crocheters can clothespin a donated hat to, for someone to adopt. And they are appreciated year round, not just in cooler months. There are many patterns online if you search.
All the best for your upcoming tour.
Anyway, I'm a music writer myself. Perhaps we can subscribe to each other's newsletters! I'll start!
I started this yesterday, but got distracted as I often do and now it’s gone so I will tell the story again. We were having Bible study on Saturday and one of our people was absent because she had a serious surgery and so we just decided to send her a picture of all of us. One of our other members had been coloring cards, little note cards, that she brought to show us and so each of us took one of the note cards and wrote our healing friend a note. We tried our hardest to make our phone balance on its side so that all of us could be in the picture but it kept falling and we kept trying and it kept falling and we kept trying... in the end. It stood up and we took our picture. It was a lovely picture because hopefully she could see our hearts through the smiles on our faces from laughing at our attempts to balance that darn camera!!!! We sent the picture with the cards to add some softness to her healing journey... then I came home and worked for hours planting a flower garden. I had dug it up and tilled the soil a week or two before. I might’ve worked for six hours in that garden, and when I was almost done, one of my neighbors, walked by and said I really like this garden, and so those are my soft edge stories from this weekend. Just a group of people sending thinking of you notes to a hurting person, and time spent planting flowers that will touch people that I will likely never meet!
The softness I created yesterday was just listening...listening to my neighbor talk about all her trouble, listening to a widower tell me about his wife, and listening to the thoughts in my own heart. I just have to say the best softness I ever felt was the hospice care both my Daddy and Momma received. They spoke words of kindness, words of comfort, and words of how to let go.
To create soft places in this world of hard edges, I share this prayer a friend posted. I feel it strongly, especially since I have several family members living in Israel and 7 nephews who have been activated to army service and one waiting for his orders:
A Prayer for our Planet🧡🙏🧡
I now send pure luminous white light to the most dark places in the world where there is chaos, retaliation, killing, pain, suffering, hunger, fear and sadness.
May harmony and love be restored beginning with me. Please do not allow my grief or perception to contribute to the mindset of duality where beliefs exist that “You are either with me or against me,” or “If I am right, then you are wrong.”
May my inner balance, peace and unconditional love support and promote a higher expression of oneness, unity, forgiveness and unconditional love for ALL.
I too am a knitter of only practical items but your words have me reconsidering what goes on my needles next and the need for soft edges in our crazy, broken but beautiful world.
Thank you for this thoughtful prompt, Carrie. As soon as I finished reading it, I knew exactly what bit of softness I was being inspired to do at that very moment—call a dear friend who is deep into dementia and probably does not know who I am anymore. But we had some sweet moments of talking and laughing together. She always mentions how grateful she is for her life and all it’s held for her. She does not recall the stunningly beautiful and mysterious paintings she’s created nor remember anything about them, even those hanging on the walls of her room. But her gratitude and laughter shine through the depths of her faded memory and she finds joy in simply being alive. Actually, it was she who softened my edges today for which I am deeply grateful.
I find your story about a friend being unable to remember much but still being able to love so inspiring! Thanks for your sharing!
Oh sharon, this is a tenderness. How souls shine even as memory fade. You remember for your both, and that has a softness too. Blessings on the phone call, on the paintings on all you remember and to moments of light and laughter today.
So great to see your smiling face! Thank you for this.
I love your little lambs Carrie! Losing my mom almost a year ago, ( I can’t believe it) my sweetheart had noticed the happiness draining from me. I asked him about taking a trip to Bloomington to see you at your Album release concert and he agreed. I couldn’t believe he was willing to do the 9 hour trip there and 9 hours back. He told me “I love to see you happy and you are at your happiest seeing Carrie Newcomer.”. It touched me so much to hear that from him. He’s so special. I couldn’t thank him enough driving home afterwards. What a wonderful time we had not just seeing you but just being together. Coming up in May, I’ve got our tickets for Michigan ( Ann Arbour) and he does this all for me so I suggested we make it a weekend trip since your show is on a Friday and he can go and Golf in Michigan. Golfing is what brings him happiness and his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree what I mentioned it! I look forward to planning it out our trip together. I’m thankful to have such a wonderful sweetheart!!!
It was fun to meet both of you Tracey!!
It was fun meeting you as well!!
I hope to come again!!
Thanks, Carrie, for the wisdom that will make sense to me later.
My attempts to create soft edges are simple reminders to individuals to look within and to “Know Thyself”. To consciously and patiently focus on the breath and feel the simple yet profound peace of the moment.
We are gifted life one breath at a time, one moment at a time, for a lifetime.
Recently, I asked an artist friend of mine if she could do a small painting of our pet Cockatiel, Cornelius. She has been going through a rough patch in her life, and doing her art grounds her. In a thank you note to her, I included a feather from Cornelius' preening pile, along with the phrase " May all your troubles fly away!"
She was very touched by this gesture, and I hope it helps each time she looks at the feather.
So lovely…..a feather, a symbol of spirit, how perfect and soft and generous of spirit my friend. Softeness often encourages softness in return…and on it goes, one feather at a time.
I wish could choose the soft and lovely today, but I am angry for the ruthless destruction and kidnapping on Israel's southern border. I find myself wishing vengeance, rather than forgiveness, because it seems irresponsible to ignore the brutality of people driven by hate. I pray, rather, for justice and mercy for me and all those ensnared in this ugly war.
Thank you for your honest sharing. Your anger is totally understandable. I respect that you use your anger as a motivation to pray for justice and mercy.
There are always innocent loses and suffering in war….grievous and terrible, particularly the children. It is a honorable and humble prayer, to pray for the expanding of the heart and opening of the whole world to healing. It is difficult to do when anger narrows our vision, because that is the nature of rage. The Black mystic theologian, Howard Thurman, wrote that hate is indeed a form of resistance, but it is the least effective form, because it eventually cannot be contained to one person or one group of people, it gets into our hearts and spirits and often expands in ways that harm us on a soul deep level. He acknowledged our right to our anger, the importance of our being enraged righteously….but it can be transformed, and channeled into acts for good and justice. As a quaker, I do not believe there is ever “redemptive violence” there is only violence which echos and continues for generations. I hear your anger….it is always a difficult practice in such times to eventually find the place in your heart (that will wait until you are ready - because sometimes it takes awhile), to transform that anger into action for good, to allow your broken heart to be broken open and not apart. Thanks for your honest post….it is a question for our times….how to we live in these challenging times, how do we “be” the change we most want to see in this weary troubled world.
We often need the space to grieve...prayers for the space you are in.