Day 97: I was down all day with what seems to be the flu. My husband was really sweet and got me all set up on the couch before he left for work. Got the heating pad and a big blanket and then got the kids a video to watch on the computer. He then came home at bedtime and got them ready, tucked in and to sleep. I promptly fell asleep after he left to go back to work.
Day 98: Still sick and he's getting it too.
I was crocheting today and as I was working through the stitches I couldn't help but feel like it was similar to our marriage. This is the first single crochet project that I've done in awhile and it takes a long time for them to amount to much. But stitch by stitch I keep going and within a few days from now it will be a fun little purse for a sweet little girl.
The other night I was eighteen rows into the project and I noticed a mistake in row four. After gathering myself I started pulling out the stitches so that I could fix the error. It was painful but necessary. Eight rows later (again) I realized that when I pulled it out I did not pull out row four so off again I went to ripping. This time it took the drive out of me and I had to lay it down for a few days.
It reminds me so much of our marriage though. Sometimes you have to go back and fix things because they are not going to go away. Sometimes you think you fix it only to realize that it's still there. And then there are those refreshing times when you pick it back up and realize that there is more there than you remembered. The former are hard to handle sometimes but rewarding when you look back and see that it is done properly and the latter...well, those are the times that give me a boost in my motivation.
267 days. One stitch at a time.
I love your analogy about marriage being like a piece of crochet work.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that struck me is that the odd mistake generally isn't noticed in the context of the whole piece of work. Okay, there are the mistakes which cause the whole piece to unravel - and those are the ones which must be fixed - but there are also the kind which don't matter so much.
Aspiring to perfection is not a bad thing - but we shouldn't be too hard on ourselves if we don't achieve it.
I've been following your blog and am amazed by your strength and grace in coping with all this. I hope you feel better from the flu very soon.
(from Foolish Woman)