time moves....

"Time is too slow for those who wait, swift for those who fear, long for those who grieve,short for those who rejoice but for those who love, time is an eternity" from Henry VanDyke a short story writer and poet.

We've all waited for something spectacular and time moved like a turtle, spent moments that seemed like hours in fear, thought that our time grieving would never end and our time for celebrating ended way too soon. Hopefully we all know the eternity of love - loving someone and being loved. If not from the human kind, at least from the God of the Universe - the example of love.

Tomorrow I return to northern Michigan from our retirement home in North Carolina. I will spend a few days celebrating with my friend of 40 years and give her the "Still Waters" quilt I made for her. I named it for the water colors and batiks with sailboats and flowing streams of colors and for the Bible verse, Psalm 23:2-3 "and He leads my beside the still waters and restores my soul"

We met 40 years ago the first of this month and since I think maintaining a friendship for that long is rare, I suggested that we try to commemorate that in some way. So, I will fly into Traverse City and then we will drive up to Lake Superior and spend a quiet 3 days in the most northern tip of Michigan...talking. Coffee and conversation is the order of the day.

Relationships do take time, especially long distance ones. I believe with all the important use of our time, the planning, organizing and executing - people are more important than things. The time we spend in our relationships will indeed last forever. We are forever touched by our relationships and they live on thru people to other people and generations. Even my quilts will someday wear out but love and touching other people will not.

I did not get a quilt piece done before leaving for this trip, that I very much wanted to complete. I am going to try to sell this piece and it's for Halloween. I will return around the 5th and will take it to my friend that has a shop and hopefully there will still be enough days left that someone will stop in and it will catch their eye for their home. I know that these fall weekends will fly by and the customers are out and about checking out the fall color and cooler weather. Hopefully I won't be too late. But, sometimes we have to make choices with our precious time moments and relaxing and refreshing the mind and spirit are the most precious gems of all. For what are we worth if we are carved out of haste and fret and worry and regret.

I believe in using time wisely and efficiently and being organized and completing things - but I refuse to feel guilty about slowing down at times too. That makes me so much more worthwhile to accomplish the other things.

So if you didn't get something done today, or this week and you are "beating yourself up" about it. Take a good hard look at why - if it meant you needed some refresh time or time to invest in a relationship, I hope you will consider that use of your time worth more than gold. Remember that He leads us beside the still waters to calm us and give us a sense of peace. Take time to enjoy the "still waters".

I also wanted to begin sharing with you some blocks from Women of The Bible Quilt project - some 400 women around the country work on this every year by internet. Carolyn in Goshen, Indiana wrote the Bible Study and each week we get a new lady's story from the Bible along with a study relating to that story. Also, we do a new block each week for each lady's story to have 52 in the completed quilt. I am on my second year in trying to complete the quilt for my kitchen. I have included a couple blocks and the web site for the whole study.

http://www.patternsoffaith.com/QuiltGallery.php

I'll share about my "time" with my friend Kathy when I return next week. Have a good one and relax!

...making every moment count - maybe for eternity by restoring my soul ~ Wendy

"always the right time to do the right thing"

That quote is by Dr Martin Luther King - and he was so right. We get so busy and we have our agenda's all in line and then something comes along - an opportunity - to make a difference in someone's life. We went to Erie for 2 wks - just got back, and my dh (dear husband) and his 2 brother in law's (I helped a little) build an attached garage, laundry and 2nd bath, onto his mother's house. His father passed away in Feb and he left there saying, my mom cannot go another winter parking her car in the barn that is acrosso the drive and yard. She is 86. He wanted to build an attached garage to her 150 + yr old house.

I did not plan to go but she emailed and was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the amount of construction and the cooking for everyone, etc. and asked me to come. I had my plans of being alone for 2 weeks and quilting my brains out. But, that was not the plan for me and I decided to go to Erie and try to do some quilting while I was there. I had to plan for small snippets of time that I could "inch" my way along, but I was able to complete my quilt for my friend I am celebrating 40 yrs of good friendship with next wk in Traverse City, MI and Houghton/Hancock, MI. I also completed a fall table runner I had started last yr and mostly completed a Halloween wall hanging - "Pumpkins in the Yard".

Sometimes we have our time planned out and it can be unsettling to let them go and "do the right thing" but I believe that going to Erie for 2 wks rather than 2 wks alone quilting while my husband went....well, it was the right thing - and it was the perfect time to do the right thing. I shopped, cooked, did some construction, took pics all thru each day and then had to go to a cafe' to send the pics to awaiting family as she only has "dial-up" service for her computer. Oh yes, that's another thing to do without while there - high speed internet. It takes longer to download the blog than to write it. And I have a Facebook page and that had to go unused for 2 wks too.

Someday she will be gone and I can never again get the time back that we had helping the guys out and keeping them fed. It was a great time with my mother in law too - afternoons talking and planning. My agenda seemed important and well deserved, but someone else needed me more.

I believe in good planning and keeping to the plan - but this time, it was right to let my plan go and take on a new plan - to be flexible and still try to get a bit of what I wanted to do, done. And that I did. So, you can see in the pics, the large lap quilt in my friend's requested "sea" colors and the fall tablerunner. I am still working on the pumpkins for the wall hanging - next time.

Keep to the plan when you can but sometimes, people are more important than things.