Two Places at Once

There are some who make the argument that baseball is like life..I have probably been one of them. But I know now that life is like knitting. They contain some of the same paradoxes.

For instance..

We have a new minister at our church. I have been at this church for about eight months and I have seen some of the things we've done to insure we do not continue. With the new assignment we are either a dying church or a church with a new beginning.

The only thing separating the two is our attitude.

I have finished both afghans I was working on. One was given to the pastor last Sunday and the other one is packaged up and will be sent when the person who ordered it pays for it in the shop.

So, am I at the end or am I at the beginning? Yes to both.

Our church is a dying church and frankly, I think it should. I knew the reputation before I walked in the doors and I've seen with my own eyes and battled with my own tongue. What we've been doing and what has been done before I ever walked in the door has to end. It has to die in order to bring about the changes we need to incorporate so the new church can begin.

Likewise, i will remain at the end of the last project until I pick up the needles, hooks and yarns to make the new beginning.

The changes are going to be tough on some folks - not because they are going to have a hard time letting go of the last pastor - but because they are going to have a hard time letting go of the attitude they had. They think they've dropped it. That they were only acting that way because of one person and now that she's gone, they can be themselves. Like they were abducted by a righteous alien.

You act like you act because you are who you are.

I am praying for my church and trying to be unemotional at the same time. Emotions have not served us well while we've jettisoned reason and faith.

I've already started my new project. I've added more squares to the stack I showed you earlier. I'm moving away from the end of the old project to the beginning of the new and It's coming along. I'm still looking back a little - a lot of work went into those old projects. There are things to remember about them. And the best of what they offered will go into the new projects and the worse of them will have to be acknowledged then avoided.

Because that's how we learn and that's how life goes.