I'm persisting with the name-in-the-post-title business because it makes me happy, and I feel like it. This blog is all about doing things that make us happy, yes? Well, there ya go.
These are some of the socks that I took to my conference last week. The green yarn is "Spatula Ant" and the blue is "Blue Orchard Bee." Both are spectacularly luxurious, being 20% cashmere. They are modeled by my mom, but sized for man, hence the appearance of floppy toes.
I knit these socks for the husband of a good friend. He is facing surgery in the next week or so, to hopefully correct an AVM (Arterial Venous Malformation) near his colon. If the surgery goes well, he's all better. If not, he's facing a possible colostomy at age 38. No one should have to deal with that ever, much less at age 38. Needless to say, he and his family have a great deal of apprehension surrounding this surgery.
I don't tend to knit prayer shawls, for whatever reason, but I am big on prayer socks. When my daughter had her tonsils out, I sent her into surgery wearing a pair of hand knit socks, made by Mommy. When my mother was in the hospital with Awful Evil Colitis, I send her with a pair of hand knit socks. They both came home healthier than ever. There's something powerful about a handmade, tangible representation of prayer and positive energy given to someone facing difficulty in their life.
I was given a prayer shawl, knitted by a dear family friend, when I was pregnant with my son. We'd lost a baby between our daughter and the pregnancy with our son. I spent most of his pregnancy terrified that I would never get to hold him, that he would slip away from me without warning, just like his sibling. During particularly bad bouts of worry, I would sit in the rocking chair we used to rock our children, wrap myself in that prayer shawl, and rock the baby inside of me with my arms held tightly around my belly. There was a palpable love and support that emanated from that shawl. I still use it when I'm particularly upset, and my son seems to take a great deal of comfort from it also.
Another friend of mine once told me that she believes energy can be sent out into the Universe, or to someone specific, and that positive energy absolutely has an effect. I think she's right. This is my way of sending that energy. I know in my head that there's nothing protective about a pair of socks, but I believe with my whole heart that they will help. If there's more in Heaven and Earth than is dreamt of in our philosophy, then I will choose to continue in my belief that even the smallest act may have a much bigger impact than we could ever appreciate. The knitter of my prayer shawl had no idea that we'd lost a baby, much less that I spent a great deal of my pregnancy in a near constant state of anxiety. She simply knit me a shawl praying that we would have a healthy baby.
I hope my friend's husband's surgery goes well, and that he comes home to his family healthy and healed. And, even if they're nothing more than a pair of socks, I hope they show him that we're thinking of him and his family, and sending him our very best.
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