Yarn Along ~ with love to Ginny that we all share~and what we can do

As many others are noting,

Ginny had a tragic loss in her community this week.

We are praying for the newly departed Sarah and her child unborn in her womb

and for her family who are devastated by their loss. 

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It is totally understandable that Ginny

will not be able to do the link up today;

but I thought it best to do one

if only to offer my support to Ginny's work and in 

memory and honour of her friend Sarah.

What a deep and difficult loss.

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Ginny has a FB page for her blog and 

linked to a support page to give to Sarah's family.

(I don't feel right linking to this for some reason but you

can find it via a simple Google search).
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UPDATED to add this new post by Ginny with a way to support.

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I have candles lit for the newly departed Sarah&child in her womb

and for her husband and four living children... and for Ginny.

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So I am still working on my surprise knitting.

All I can say is that I am almost done

with sewing it together.

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More on it later. 

I am quite pleased with it,

another 'Elizabeth original' that will

never be repeated in exact form. :)

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I am still reading the same two books

as last week

but added a newly purchased one

to my reading:

It's been a very well written

engrossing read.

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Being Orthodox means being concerned with 

world events, esp. those of Orthodox countries;

 and my husband and I are praying

daily for Russia and Ukraine. 

My husband has a set of tapes of a class on Russian history 

and one of the things he remembers most is the American

teacher saying to a Russian, asking if he was hated as an American 

by the Russian and the Russian said to effect:

what people are responsible for their government?

and I find so far that Serge's Schmemann's book 

to have this sort of insight.

The book deals with many things that Russia suffered from

and it shows not only the horrors but the beauty of a people

who underwent them.

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It helped me get me thinking about the following...

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My husband and I were talking the other day

about the many families devastated by the many horrors of war

and how their homes were destroyed.

We are still making our home and have various

things to put up yet and a few more boxes to unpack.

We often talk of our culture being in utter decline and the many

worrisome things that are happening in our world.

Like organic local farmers and homesteaders in Michigan being shut down ~

I can't tell you how much this worries me.

Freedom is crumbling in ways that are deeply troubling.

It's like I now understand what a pious Catholic woman once told me

...we are powerless but we have God.

Not meaning we don't have responsibility or some control at least over 

our own reactions to things

but that there is so much that we can't do anything about.

But here is what I said to my beloved Subdeacon Husband:

if we had a son and raised him right, true, with beauty that comes 

from God, in harmony with all virtue,

and he went to fight in a war that was a good just war 

and he died,

would it still not of been worth raising him to be good, right and true?

YES! It would of been worth it all.

It is like that for our lives and our homes.

We need to make them as good, peaceful, beautiful and God-pleasing.

We need to seek to be Christians and grow in 

likeness of Christ.  

We need to keep asking God to have mercy and protect our lands

and our family lines.

Every night I pray with Mr. Husband to the Mother of God 

to protect and save our families,

including all those born to our family lines in the future.

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What we are doing matters.

What Ginny does matters.

Her making the best for her family, her love of the outdoors,

her family's going to church and seeking to grow

in Christ;

my life as small as it is with Mr. Husband, matters;

our pursuit of beauty, how we both listen only to three things:

~silence, Orthodox music, classical music~

matters.

I hear horrible 'rap music' played in our neighbourhood in 

the cars and homes of others; 

if you listened to the words alone you would understand

how far our culture has declined.

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Our lives matter and making a home

that is a place of rest, beauty and for the honour of God,

a home unworthy as it is, to be a place where God is invited

and icons grace the walls.

Creating harmony in life with God matters.

Farming and local choices matter.

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Perhaps this is not my usual yarn along post

but my goal today was to support Ginny and all of us

in doing what we can do:

pray, grieve, making the best homes we can and 

just remember that we are loved by God,

our lives matter, our families, our prayer corners

any order and beauty we can bring

is something worth creating.

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