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 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.

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.