A Saturday in January

As a novice at quilting, I learn more and more with each quilt I make, but what makes learning fun and ultimately more productive is to learn and practice alongside others.  Bright and early this morning, I and four other women gathered to continue work on a common pattern, A Secrete Garden by Pat Sloan.  Honestly, I would never have gone from patchwork to applique' so quickly were it not for our inspiring teacher and this small group, we her intrepid students, who would follow her anywhere.  Five hours with beautiful fabrics, sewing machines that still amaze me at what they can do, and comfortable fellowship was an invigorating way to start the day.  I still can't quite believe I am doing this--making a picture from pieces of fabric....

Then...on this highly unusual blue-sky January day, a day when a new era of Penn State football began with the naming of a new head coach (coach Bill O'Brien), Jim and I took a bike ride through campus to the stadium, pausing at the statue to pay our respects.

What a gift is a day like today.

Taking Time

I have been retired (officially!) for almost half a year.  My retirement date was June 10^th, the last day of the 2010-2011 school year; therefore, in one week it will be six months since I walked out of my classroom.  Really hard to believe.

For six months, I allowed my world to shrink a bit, concentrating primarily on reflection, adjustment, and maintenance of the status quo: it's time to begin living larger.  In 2012, I hope to:

Continue to learn new things.

Laugh and smile more freely and more often.
Streamline.

Stretch more boundaries and step beyond my comfort zone.

Find quiet space each day to be grateful and listen.

Spend more green time, outside in nature and in my home living in   

       responsible stewardship.

Write.

Pursue progress, not perfection.

"Make new friends but keep the old" (ah, that old Brownie song!).

Create.

Appreciate beauty.
Pick up the telephone and make a call.

Read closely, savoring the words on the page.

Move my body and challenge my mind.

Notice horizons, both old and new.

Show love.

Pray.

And always...strive to seek "the wisdom from above, that which is pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy." (James 3:17)

2011

2011 concludes tonight and with it another year of life and the living of it, not only for us here in this quiet corner but for the larger collective humanity across the globe.

This year, we cheered and watched in respectful fascination the revolutionary zeal of the Arab Spring as it spread across the Middle East. This revolution of change, ushered in by the people who longed lived with dictators and despotism gave rise to the Occupy movement here in our own country, with the 99 percent calling attention to a dramatic inequality of distribution of wealth. 

We also watched aghast and aggrieved by the images of Japan, rocked and swept away by the force of a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami.  We lost the visionary Steve Jobs and the notorious Osama Bin Laden.  We ended a decade of war in Iraq.

Here on this homefront, we rejoiced in a new home for one offspring and a new baby for another.  I marked the end of five years of cancer treatment. We celebrated a career recognizing award for Jim and our 40^th wedding anniversary.  In 2011, we also endured tests and trials, both small and large. Jim had shoulder surgery, and I wrestled some bouts with a too zealous heartbeat.  Penn State was shaken to its core by scandal; while truth and justice remain elusive, the loss of innocence for the many who bleed blue and white still feels devastating.

We relished a trip to Hilton Head, Sunset Beach, time spent with family and friends, our evening bike rides, a spotting of a bear, a witnessing of a sunset, and the blessing of times of peaceful meditation and moments of unexpected joy

We welcomed baby James and baby Liam. We said hello to my retirement and goodbye to some dear friends—Eleanor, John, and Ed. 

365 days of living, breathing, watching, praying, and participating in this journey we take by grace, step-by-step and day-by-day.  Now we turn the page to a brand new year…

Christmas Gifts

The house is emptied and just a bit too quiet.  Alex's fold-up bed is bended up and tucked away.  A pile of sheets is in a hamper and a pile of clean towels sits atop the dryer.  The dining room table has shrunk by two leaves and the dishwasher has only run one time today. Sigh.

Last night we were nine around a table; now we are just two.  Big sigh...

We received some wonderful gifts this holiday season, thoughtful presents picked out by those we love to show their love to us.  But the best gift of all is just being together--telling stories, laughing, reading, watching a movie, riding bikes, building, cooking, eating, and sitting around in our pajamas at any and every time of day.  Family.

After months of making things to gift, I can now post a few of them:

A hat and mittens using Paton wool and a Knitting Pure & Simple pattern.

A cowl using Blue Sky Organic Cotton and this pattern

And this quilt.  My second one.

I hope your Christmas was just as warm and just as merry.

I just couldn't resist

Just when I decided that I was at the "ready-for-Christmas" finish line, I happened upon this pattern and this lovely hand-dyed yarn.  And there really was one more gift I could use.  So I started knitting last night. I will finish it tonight and then, I am really am ready for Christmas, after I clean the bathrooms, add leaves to the table,  retrieve the high chair and fold away beds from the attic...

 Tomorrow, our family begins to arrive, and Christmas festivities commence.  Peace.

One more week

…until Christmas Eve.  And I am getting ready.  I have adored the mantle...

delivered some handmade gifts to friends and neighbors...

wrapped some presents...

made some cookies, fudge, and party mix…

enjoyed good times with friends...

and finally, trimmed our tree this afternoon.

Now, it is time to breathe deeply, sit down, slow down, savor the season, lovingly welcome my family home, and settle my heart and mind on true miracle of  this season—the Incarnation, Word become flesh, a baby born in a stable to save us all…

Ruby Anniversary

December 11, 1971: 40 years ago…what did we know, other than we wanted to be together, all the time.  In retrospect, it seemed so foolhardy; in retrospect; it was so wise.

I was 19 (just) and he was 21 (barely).  He was a senior at Penn State and I a sophomore.  We had no money and no jobs, other than part time work.  We had no plans for the future, except to finish school and make the monthly rent of $85 on our second-floor, Nittany Avenue apartment.

Our wedding day was an unusually lovely, balmy December day.  I remember walking into town to buy a black shoulder bag for our honeymoon; Jim washed his ’65 Mustang.

The ceremony was held at the Helen Eakin Eisenhower Chapel on the campus of Penn State at 7:00 in the evening. I carried white roses and holly.  Jim’s grandfather, John Henry Frizzell, chaplain emeritus and founder of the speech department at Penn State, wrote a prayer for us.  A simple reception followed in the Fireside Room at the Nittany Lion Inn.   Tea sandwiches, cake, ice cream, and punch were served, with a piano player providing background music.  

We left that night and drove to Lewistown for a what we thought would be two-day honeymoon/Christmas shopping trip to Harrisburg . The next day we ran into Jim’s brother Rob and our sister-in-law, eating breakfast at Zimmie’s Diner, and they persuaded us to go to the King of Prussia Mall instead.  So we did.

40 years later, I would do it all over again, exactly the same way.  This naïve, young couple added three children—two incredible sons and an amazing daughter.  Later, another good and gentle son-in-law and a beautiful and bright daughter-in-law joined this clan Campbell.  And then came our two adored and beloved grandsons.  Together we built a family, careers, a home…a life.

Our life together hasn’t been perfect but it has been good and it has been blessed. Experiencing our share of sorrows and disappointment, we too have been showered with uncanny amounts of joy and wonder.  Together with our devoted family and our cherished friends we have built a rich history of faith and love.  Tomorrow, we celebrate it all, with joyful and grateful hearts.