Before I dig into that which is on my heart this morning I bring you Jen Fulwiler talking about the Hallow App. She is hilarious and this is, by far, one of the best promotions for product I’ve seen in a long time. The app itself is cool too.
The Front Porch. Of all the places in my home wherein I enjoy spending time, the Front Porch with its eastward view of both sky and neighbor, its coziness, and essentially the lack of technology. This place of my current dwelling is deeply connected to God in a way I can not fully explain, though as a person of faith and perhaps even a quilter, you get this. The cloudiness and call for spitty/foggy this morning meant no front porch sitting until my Sweetie told me of lavender skies.
Faith is a funny thing. It is at once an intensely personal journey with God and yourself and at the same time intensely corporate – meaning we’re in this boat with everyone else currently residing on this planet and most keenly with the ones closest to us. Sometimes Faith seems easy breezy, la la la, wheee! Sometimes Faith is a hard slog. And sometimes it’s a whole lotta work, and sometimes it’s coffee with friends
The moment wherein patience is the prayed for virtue is fully present in my mind and heart right now. The room bright with the light of the late fall, early winter sun, I’d just had a difficult conversation with someone about some way I’d not measured up, meeting the community standards for living a life that exemplified the practice of faith, and in that moment my fifteen year old brain and heart thought praying for patience is the best thing to do. Following this prompting to pray for and then try to live the virtue of patience is not particularly, shall we say, easy. My eyeroll skills when annoyed are epic, the harrumph well done and the body language expressing this sorely lacking virtue. And in this moment wherein I share this distinct lack of patience I’m looking at, examining where this exists and, wait for it, giggling. You see I’m pretty patient when I teach, and when I’m working in a quilt shop. Where am I least patient? At home and with myself. I know you’re just as shocked as I am to discover this flaw in my otherwise patient being.
Advent is a time of expectant waiting, of looking forward to, of anticipation, of focusing in on Peace, Joy, Hope. Gaudete! one of the Priests I worked with would exclaim around the office. Gaudete! In the midst of a penitential season we have this respite a resting place in our journey to the barn where Jesus is born and laid in a manger.
I’m currently working on two quilts, one will hang in a special exhibit next month.
The other is for a publication later next year but it’s due in early January so I have to get both of them and some other work done. As I’ve reflected on this resting place, this place of Joy in Advent there is both great joy in the making of both of these quilts. I’m also reflecting on Creativity and little talks for the Faith in Quilting retreat I’m giving in February. Before I head off to work on these quilts, the class I’m filming, editing an interview blah blah blah, I’m sharing this homily by Fr. Joe Krupp:
Happy Advent friends,
teri
A Quilter's Heart 