saving me today.

[In clicking around on this ol' internet I've recently run across a blogging sister, Sarah Bessey. She is an amazing and inspiring Christian writer and each time I visit her blog I'm refreshed, renewed, and challenged. Recently she did a post posing a question for readers to begin a conversation in which we can be completely encouraged by people we will never meet. The question is "What is saving your life right now?" My answer is as follows...]

I want to say that what is saving me right now is my Faith. My God. My Jesus. I know that's the right answer, and I know that in my deepest of hearts that's what is True for me, even when I can't grasp it in my hands. So that is my answer. But if you know anything about me, you know that already. So, if I can, let me tell you some things I can physically hold and touch that keep me moving forward in this life.

Sometimes, when the sea is calm and the water so clear I can see to the bottom and there is no dangerous marine life and my ship's sailing smoothly, I would tell you that my friends who lift me up in prayer any and every time I ask are saving me. Or the chocolate pie I made a few weeks ago that I couldn't stop eating. Or summer nights sitting on my back porch with my cat purring in my lap. Or even the Hunger Games series that I just finished. Or Menchies frozen yogurt, or trips to the pet shelter. Or one quick thought of a baby girl in an orphanage in Haiti where I seem to have left a good portion of my heart. Or maybe, sometime I might tell you my amazing family is saving me. Or a good night's sleep. Or my Keurig coffee maker with a Hazelnut K cup. Or hearing Lani and Nahomie sing in the kitchen early in the morning. Or the memories I have of a class full of eager women memorizing scripture together. Or a candle lit bubble bath, or an hour of total silence. And these would be truthful answers. All of these things have saved me before, and will likely save me again.

But on days like today, when the water is rough and the waves so big I want to go down to the tightest corner of life and curl up and sleep until the storm is over, there is only one thing I have found today that is moving me forward. 

It is my needle and my thread and my thimble and my fabric of which I am hand quilting a quilt for a baby. Don't know what baby, or who's, or when it will arrive. Lets just add that to the list of things I don't know about today. What I do know is how to guide this needle in and out of fabric in relatively even stitches, tie a knot, snip the thread, and move to the next piece. So that is what I am doing. I'm guiding a needle to occupy my hands, and listening to music to occupy my mind. Because the Lord knows at times like these, there is no good replacement for a distraction from what life is actually handing you. Right now, this very minute, a nice, predictable, controllable needle and thread is exactly what is saving me.

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