Ohio North to I 80 West

...and forty hours later I would be there!

God has blessed me with a dear friend whose face I have not seen "live" in 34 years.  We left our respective high schools and ended up at a small Christian college in central Ohio.  Going separate ways after college, we reconnected on Facebook 30-some years later.

Beth lives in Eugene, Oregon.  I'm in Akron, Ohio.  I could hop in my Honda go a few miles north and get on the Ohio turnpike (I-80) and head west.  With my Eas-Z Pass in check, I would not need change for tolls.  And 40 hours later..I could squeeze her face, embrace her, share smiles and cuppas.

A dream that warms my heart...but for now, I must savor her spirit from afar.

Beth is a kindred spirit.  Beth and I are both social workers by training...and embrace that profession.  We both love reading, books, thoughts, and ideas.  We are both very spiritual people with a love for our Creator.  We both crave nature, silence, and solitude...as well as journaling and cuppas of coffee or tea with a dear friend or alone.  We are both comfortable in our own skin in our mid-50s after doing a lot of personal work and allowing God to mold us into the person He intended us to be, which sometimes means taking roads less traveled.

She has the practice of gratitude down to a science!  Who would doubt that the closest person to her is named Joy?????!!!!  And her letters and posts always make me smile and feel refreshed.  There's so much of each us to experience and share with each other which is challenging at a distance...which can only be fully appreciated face to face.  But for now I treasure the dear heart and friend she is to me.  (Stills include some items she sent me in a birthday care package including a homemade card she made, an issue of Kinfolk, a handwritten letter, plus some other treats.  Texture used on all images:  Kim Klassen's waterfront23 for Texture Tuesday.)

By the way, because of Beth living where she lives, rooted for the Seahawks in the Super Bowl!  Must've been why they won!  She roots for my Mountaineers...and I root for her Ducks!

I Collect...

Kim Klassen had us focus on the beautiful things that we have, that we tend to save or collect...in my Beyond Beyond course...

A month or two ago, I created a Facebook group page for those cross-stitchers that used to be on AOL (You've got mail!)  X-stitch boards...like GeriRoyer, SuzNov, Grndmadi, Jane in WV, GinaEgg, Billsfran, MelissaJax, Mimibear1, GSRox1, Houstnrose, Lenora(andsomenumbers), HooBeeU...we knew each other by our AOL screen names.  Some of those folks have become lifelong friends...  Who knew?  We found 81 former members from AOL and we are all now sharing again on Facebook...

When I thought about "I Collect"...

I thought about crosstitch and pulled out some things that had been put away some time ago...or shall I say was packed when I moved in 2010 and still remains, for the most part...still packed.

There is comfort and solace running your fingers across such color, such fibers, threads, and textiles...bringing some of it back out was like coming home...

These AOL X-Stitch peeps knew without explanation about the joy of our stash...even if you could not get everything you had ever stitched up...we could not live without our S.E.X. (Stash Enhancement Xperiences) aka shopping for crosstitch stuff...and telling each other about our latest enhancements.

Beautiful colored evenweaves...some linen (Belfast, Dover, Newcastle, Newport, Edinburgh, and Cashel), some Lugana, Fiddler's Cloth, Floba, Jobelan, Hardanger...and yes what we all stitched on for our first project...Aida!

And you had to have an interpreter or special primer to understand our language as a newbie:

• Frogging - Pulling out threads from a mistake (you had to rip it, rip it, rip it...get it?)
• U.F.O. - Un-finished Object, project started but not completed
• Fuppies - Completed projects but they were not finished up (i.e., framed, sewn into something, etc.)
• Rotation - You might have several projects going at the same time and you would work on one for a week, go to the next one for a week, and so on...and repeat so you completed projects without getting tired of them...

EXCEPT for SuzyNov...this is her photo of her GBH (Great Blue Heron)...she would always groan about still working on the water of her GBH.  It is legendary and still talked about today all over the country..

And as I went through the little bit of items I unpacked for this challenge...other memories surfaced...

We had ornament swaps, floss swaps, stitch-a-longs (subgroups of those working on a specific piece together)...but we also made a quilt for Susan who was hurting, and supported those who had lost spouses, enduring illness, divorce...while keeping it light talking about our "Cabana boys."

And as I looked at things I had stitched...memories of my own life flooded back...a time when my own last name was different...with different initials stitched to show I had done the work.

I also remembered how long it took...one-stitch-at-a-time...an exercise in patience...each project.  Kind of an illustration in tenacity...

And as I looked at patterns I had dreamed of making at one time...I remembered my dream for my bedroom...

It's kind of a Sturbridge-Yankee colonial style...always wanted my husband to have something that could pass as "the Lincoln bedroom" with a wall filled with my handstitched reproduction samplers from past centuries from patterns shown here...

...but maybe I've been inspired by finding my AOL X-Stitch girls again...and by running my hands over a minuscule of my stash (I have tons of stash!)...and I may go back to my dream...my sampler wall...

And before putting this time capsule away, I pulled out a small antique reproduction project and kitted it...

Maybe I'll put my needle to work this weekend...and before long you'll see it here!

I'm so grateful to have not just my stash...but also my collection of crosstitch peeps from over the years!

Queens for a Dinner!

So...how else did I recharge during my time off?  Get more green back in my world...??

Well...my one little word for the year if you remember is 'embrace'...

And the focus for February is Embrace My Health...not just for February...but I pick it up here...

Mental, physical, spiritual, emotional...(big task).  Just taking time off was addressing my mental health...but I bumped it up a notch...and went to  dinner with a friend...

but not just any friend...

(I'm also including photos from my Beyond Beyond - Day 3 class)

 

 

This introvert loves and adores people...but one-on-one, in small groups, or Edster and me out with another couple or two, at the most.  And I'm somewhat discerning (partly because if you enjoy people but aren't needy for people as some kind of way of filling up the empty parts of yourself...you can choose to spend quality time with  those you truly enjoy...who nurture you.  This is not to be equated with people you minister to or serve).

 

This friend I have spoken with and communicated over the past year...but it had been a long time since we were out together.  A long time...and if you knew both of our lives intimately you would understand why...(we both could be contestants on "Queen for a Day.")  (Sidebar:  for those of you who are aren't a baby boomer -- that was a game show where a women (about four) would come on and each give their sob story...and the audience would vote by applause for the most pathetic one.  The winner would be named Queen for a Day.  And what did she win?  New washers, dryers, pots, pans, kitchen appliances...and even girdles...so wrong on so many levels.  If think I'm kidding...you can check it out here.)

  

So both of us were Queens for dinner...our prize was quality time.

 

And where do we begin to catch up...our last names were both different, our children (who grew up together) were in different vocations, and yet...

 

In many ways, it was if no time had passed...because the connection remained...

 

Our greatest connection is our love for our Savior...the foundation...

 

But additionally...

 

...we had a long history of inside jokes...

      ...we both have random senses of humor...

             ...there's a depth that has come from adversity we've experienced

                  ...and we weaved in and out between sorrow and laughter easily and naturally.

 

 

So...we left...both of us...wanting more.  There were tons of questions and things I was curious about such as, "How did your daughter get into photography?" or "If you could do it all again would you change any of it?" or "What have you learned?"  or "Do your still really need more cowbell?"...

 

This was fellowship...this was nurturing...this energized me...quality over quantity will always be the theme of introverts in personal relationship...

 

It is these kind of relationships that we EMBRACE (there's that word)...

 

And just as if things couldn't get better...

 

I ordered Edster a sub sandwich to go...being from near Phillie, he's a connoisseur of subs...so after a night out with my fellow queen...he says, "This is the best sub I've had since I moved to Ohio..."

 

So I guess he was good with our time spent together, as well...