Rituals and Therapy

As you might imagine, it’s been very stressful here, working through my friend’s situation. She’s undergoing surgery again right now… once they’ve got these most critical injuries resolved the orthopedic surgeon says he thinks he should be able to completely reconstruct her pelvis/hip.

Her boy stayed with his daddy last night so he could work on processing what’s happening, and I’ve been given the very important job of mouthpiece for the family. I set up an email list, I send out updates on her condition, and that way people don’t bug her husband on a minute-by-minute basis. It’s a good job. I feel like I’m helping in a fundamental and important way, and at the same time I selfishly appreciate the fact that I get to know *right away* when something happens. I’m not so good with the waiting.

Yesterday, she was supposed to go into surgery at 4:00. I lit some candles in the laundry room to send her some healing vibes. I chose the laundry room because the cat box is in there and the air kinda needed some candle energy too. My friend would appreciate this dual purpose candle use.

I didn’t find out until 8:00 that her surgery was pushed out to today, at which point my poor candles had exhausted themselves. There was no way I was blowing out my ritualistic healing candles until I knew what was up, so they just created a kinda cute flowery mosaic on the tile.

I need new candles now.

Just like any other nervous knitter, I’ve been using this time to work on Sherbet. The back is done. So is the front:

I’m sure I would have the whole danged thing done if I only actually paid attention to what I was doing. I swatched on 13 needles, got the gauge right, and then cast on for the back and then did the ribbing and a stripe and a half before I remembered, oh yeah, I was supposed to do the ribbing on 11s. So I ripped back and started again. Then I started a front panel. On 13s. Again, 1-1/2 stripes and d’oh! Back I ripped. The irony here is that these two were the pieces I worked on *before* the accident. So I have no excuse other than general air-headedness. The *third* panel (started on Wednesday, after the accident) I remembered the 11 needles. Apparently I do better knitting under duress.

Thanks for all the healing thoughts, I’m certain that they are helping. If you can, please stop by the Red Cross and give blood – my friend has needed lots of it, and will need more, and she’s not the only one. So, if you get a chance, please take the time out to donate.

And all the healing thoughts you have, she’ll take them.