How Wide Can You Open Your Heart - thiago-barletta-36tX9ncYlzw-unsplash

How Wide Can You Open Your Heart?

With the overload of everything going on and the feelings of hopelessness, I am feeling both anxious and powerless. A meditation this morning made things a bit more clear to me, and provided me with this question. How wide can you open your heart?

QueerJoe’s Answer To How Wide Can You Open Your Heart

Let me first start by saying that I am fully supportive of the BIPOC folks in any way I can as we work toward a more just society. The ideas I have for this are clearly from a non-BIPOC person. Someone who has benefited from the historic injustices. Also someone who has not had a lifetime of struggle as some of you have.

And I’ve only in recent years started to work on empathy.  I’m relatively new to putting myself in others’ shoes and trying to get a small sense about what they go through.

A few things I can offer:

  • An entitled life has afforded me a small voice in a very big World.  One with some level of authority to those who read me here or in social media.
  • A platform where I can advocate for change and justice.
  • The physical and financial means to help in some ways.
  • The good fortune to have done enough self-reflection to know that I can never open my heart too wide. There is never enough love and empathy. The World can always use more. And fortunately, it’s a never-ending resource. The Universe will always let me go back to the well and replenish it.

So that is my answer to how wide a heart can open. It is limitless. And I plan on trying to exceed any previous attempts at inserting love into a World that desperately needs it right now.

I ask you to join me in any way you can.  As your scroll through your social media, view everything with an underlying question of “How can I add love?”  Even the barbs and direct insults aimed at you or our loved ones…don’t let them distract you from adding love anywhere you can.

And thank you for whatever you can do. It is very much appreciated.

How Desperate?

Amidst all the chaos of COVID-19, an incompetent idiot in Washington and his Congressional enablers, the tragic and horrifying death of George Floyd and the protests (with all the complexities of infiltrators and people trying to discredit the need for justice), this happens:

Alasdair Post-Quinn Fallingblox Designs Fire

Alasdair is a good friend and one who has generously poured out his heart to many of us. In his work. In his personal politics. And in his relationship with the knitting community. If you could help support him by purchasing his electronic patterns on Ravelry, it’s an easy way to show our love in return.  I already owned most of Alasdair’s designs, so I ordered a couple of them where I could “Add to Cart” and then just multiplied the quantity to get me to the donation amount I wanted to make.

Current Knitting

I am almost finished with my third Close To You Shawl, and I’ve made some progress on the Resolve Cowl.

Resolve Cowl 06-01-20 01

Just a few more rows on the Shawl and then the picot bind-off.  The cowl is 25% finished and will start to be a little more blue/indigo than gold and progressively get bluer.  Or at least that’s what the design calls for.

5 comments on “How Wide Can You Open Your Heart?

  1. Joe, you are a wonderful and BEAUTIFUL person, with a good heart. Love your blog more and more each day.

    1. Thanks Stan. I have a long way to go. In fact, it seems the more I grow, the further the finish line seems to get. Which indicates to me that growth is a journey and not a destination. But most people already knew that.

  2. Thank you for letting us know about the Falling Blocks disastrous fire. I just went to Ravelry and there’s already a thread there about it. I bought some patterns and I bumped the thread. I hope lots of Ravelers see it and buy patterns.

    And I agree with Stan.

    1. Thanks Kay. It’s readers like you and Stan that give me the small platform I have. Thank you for helping spread the love for Alasdair and his wife and neighbors. You’re awesome!

  3. The news about Fallingblox is tragic. Hoping against hope that he had insurance so at least monetarily he won’t be as devastated.

    Am right there with you on the learning journey. Growth can be surprisingly painful, but always rewarding. Are you old enough to remember the “magic penny” song? Seemingly simplistic, but nonetheless true:

    Love is something if you give it away,
    Give it away, give it away.
    Love is something if you give it away,
    You end up having more.
    It’s just like a magic penny,
    Hold it tight and you won’t have any.
    Lend it, spend it, and you’ll have so many
    They’ll roll all over the floor

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IclFQj4l3F0

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