Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Book review

I just finished another book (don't worry, knitting content to come soon, almost done with the cardigan fronts!), called What Makes You Not a Buddhist. This book covers the four seals or truths of Buddhism, which are: impermanence, emotions are pain, all phenomenon is illusory, and enlightenment is beyond concepts.
Impermanence is pretty easy for me to comprehend. Nothing is forever. We will die, our possessions will deteriorate, etc. Emotions are pain was a little harder for me to understand, I mean, all emotions are pain? Come on! But on reflection, I can understand this idea, too. Thinking of loving someone and how great that is, but then what about when something happens to that person? The feelings of love for that person end up hurting. No pleasurable emotion lasts forever. Every high has a low.
All phenomenon is illusory, or emptiness, was another 'huh?' chapter for me, but the essence seems to be about getting rid of labels. We label everything and everyone...pretty, ugly, large, small, good, bad. But what may be pretty or good or fair for you might be ugly or bad or unfair for me. Also, we shouldn't get caught up in the labels others impose on us.
Enlightenment is beyond concepts seemed pretty straight-forward to me. I can't imagine what enlightenment or nirvana is like, and I can't expect someone to be able to explain it to me so I do understand it.
I loved this book! It was a very quick read, and I know I'll read it many more times.

Today and tomorrow I'm hoping to finish the cardigan fronts and get back to work on the quilts. My goal is to get all four of the quilts done by March 26th, the first anniversary of Mom's death. Everything is out, staring me in the face, and taking up part of my living room, so no excuses!

And in totally gross news, I woke up this morning with an awful taste in my mouth, looked and my tongue in the mirror....all black! Ewwwww! It freaked. me. out. but Sir B said it could be from my taking Pepto-Bismol before bed after brushing my teeth (he said it says on the packaging it can cause a black tongue. Funny how I never remember reading that!).

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Tears to laughter

Last night I stayed up late to finish a book I got from my sister Angela at Christmas, called Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. I am a huge fan of Koontz, but haven't read anything by him in a long time, so when I started this, I couldn't put it down (I started the book Friday night!). Sadly, the ending made me think of my Mom, and by the time I had washed my face and brushed my teeth, I was crying. I went to the living room and sat with Sir B for a while, letting him comfort me, when I heard a noise. When I had gone into the bathroom earlier, I had brought with my mala and two books, setting them on the counter. Lexie had jumped on the counter and knocked my mala off, and when I got up and went around the couch to see what was going on, she was stopped mid-step with the tassel of the mala hanging out of her mouth like a dead mouse, trying to drag the thing into another room. I couldn't help it...I started laughing. How she knew I had left the mala up on that counter is beyond me, she was in the kitchen at the time.

I chalk this one up to my Mom not wanting me to be sad, and giving me the laugh I needed. Thanks Mom!

Friday, January 26, 2007

This blew me away....

From Winter 2006 Tricycle magazine, article "Revealing a World of Bliss":

"..that far from being a world of trouble and tears as it appears to be, this world of existence/nonexistence.....is in reality a world of bliss and awakening. But beings don't know this. They are awash in a sea of suffering. Reality's true trajectory is toward relieving this suffering through love."

A little news

Well, I'm back on my anti-depressant, which is a relief. I feel normal again!

I'm almost at the armhole shaping on the fronts of the cardigan:

This thing is taking forever to finish! I worked on it for hours during the football games last Sunday, and it seemed like I only got inches done.

And I finished the moons on the blanket (5 out of 19 patterns):

Everyone at Stitch-in seemed confused at the fact this is a blanket, since it's worked in the round :)

Lexie looks very interested:


Taffy....does not:


I wish I could post more often, but my life is incredibly dull most of the time, and the projects I'm working on take a long time to finish, so I work with what I got :)

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

WIP photos

First of all, Happy Birthday to my husband, Sir B!

Here it is, the back of Sir B's sweater:


I've been working on the Moon and Stars blanket the past few days. Progress!


I have been SO depressed the past few days, but my knitting has been helping tremendously. I'm trying to find a new therapist (one that can give me pills!), and I'm not looking forward to starting over at square one with someone new. I missed one knit night last week becasue I wasn't fit company, hopefully I can go to the group tonight and not be a total bummer.

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Tuesday, January 09, 2007

When my Mom died, I had a bit of a religious crisis because, well, I had no religion to fall back on. I grew up Catholic but we never went to church, only Sunday-school. I tried going to a church a friend introduced me to when I lived in Schaumburg, but it was a BIG non-denominational church that was really impersonal and way too crowded for me. When I moved to Freeport, I never even tried to find a church because I never really felt comfortable with Catholic beliefs. But I wanted to pray, so I looked online for an alternative to the rosary, and found malas--prayer or worry beads, which led me to Buddhism. I have been reading various books by Thich Nhat Hahn, Lama Surya Das, and others, and really wanted to find a temple or group near me. I found...nothing, unless I want to drive 1 1/2 hours to Madison (not really). On a whim I checked for Buddhist podcasts on ITunes, and whaddya know, there are tons! Now it's just narrowing down the choices.The point (yes, there is one), is if anyone else reading this is Buddhist and has any suggestions for me as far as podcasts/books to check out, drop me a line. I would love your input! My email is listed in my profile.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Well, I finally finished the back of Sir B's cardigan, and am starting on the fronts. Yup, that's fronts... I'm working them simultaneously (and will do the sleeves that way too). I tried to take a photo of the sweater, but the flash doesn't show off the cabling, so I'll take one tomorrow.

I've been thinking about the Pewter Coat I was going to make for moi, and the cable pattern is gonna be really frickin' hard, so I'm scrapping it. I'll use the yarn for an easy cardigan, no cables or anything, but I swear I'm going to use all that yarn I bought!!

I just saw that JenLa has the pattern up for the Cat's Face Lace Socks, and I am so making those ASAP! I'll make a pair for me and a pair for my friend Catherine for sure, and I may be able to use stash yarn (gasp!). I have purple and grey Baby Ull yarn that would work:


Here is a photo of the rings Sir B got me for Christmas:


And little Taffy all snug in her bed: