Transfiguration Spirituality
Center
Newsletter
513 771 2171 ctretreats@gmail.com
and ctretreats.org
|
|
About 30 years ago, our church was having a yard sale. Things were brought in by parishioners and local businesses. My husband was finishing grad school and we didn't have much money, so I was hoping to pick up a few things for our little apartment. (Found a used toaster!) Then, at another table, was this beautiful clear plastic bag filled with wool yarn. There was a small hole in the bag, through which I spied a tag and realized it was pure German wool. Having lived briefly in West Germany, I had an affinity for it. However, I hadn't done yarn crafting since the 1970s, using lots of synthetic yarn. Oh, this would be a find. It was tagged $4. The person monitoring the table was a very savvy business woman. I tried to haggle her down to $2. She told me that it was a good deal at $4. I pondered the purchase. It had been years since the last time I worked on a yarn project. Looking around at the other items at the massive sale, I was not to be distracted - that bag of yarn with the hole, called me to purchase and commit to it. So, I picked up the yarn, went over to the table, handed over the $4 and claimed the yarn. After arriving home, it went in a corner for a while, as I needed to remember where in the apartment I had stored my crochet hooks. The bag traveled around the little apartment and one day the hole got bigger and the bag burst open. Wow, that was an incredible amount of yarn in that bag. It was like the folk story of The Mitten. There was no way of getting the yarn back into what was left of that bag. The grey wool was accompanied by several other earthy colors. Soon after the sale, we packed up our apartment and moved. New apartment and new jobs. One day at the new office, I discovered my colleague was crocheting. I hadn't been there long, but I took a risk and asked her to show me. She offered for me to sit with her, handed me a small skein of hearty yarn and one of her crochet hooks and off we went. Wow, what a gift of her time. I relearned my skill! First a chain, then some double crochet's to make a circle. Then the circle becomes a square and I am off! I ripped it out and did it again - and I was hooked. It was the piece I was missing, to go with the yarn. Soon the yarn was pulled out of the closet, sorted, resorted. Which colors and what order they should go in. I carefully selected the ones for the first project and stored the others, not too far away. I had no idea how many skeins it would take to make, whatever it was this would become, but I knew how many I had set aside. The first afghan I made was huge. My husband called it a "house cozy," like a tea cozy, but much bigger. There was still yarn left over and for years, many of my projects ended up with some of that yarn. Just last summer, in 2021, I used the last of it. I still have the first house cozy, but the rest are elsewhere. The seasoned salesperson was right. It was a great deal. That bag of yarn was a gift that has continued for over 30 years and shared with many people. The joy in re-learning to crochet. The time getting to know my colleague who became a friend. Time choosing yarn. Prayer time crocheting. The opportunity to pray for the potential recipient, who sometimes remained unknown. Being joyful at receiving gift cards, with which to obtain more yarn, and the excitement of a great yarn sale. The stream flowing in the picture may provide life to things downstream, and things that provide life to other things, and so on and so on. Who we are, what we do, and how we share peace and love, matters.
Peace,
Kate Bower, Director Transfiguration Spirituality Center
Photo taken at Bat Cave NC, kb
|
|
That their hearts may be encouraged
being knit together in love,
to reach all the riches
of full assurance of understanding
and the knowledge of God's mystery
which is in Christ.
Colossians 2:2
|
|
Wonderful Retreat tests out a new format!
Julie Cicora, lead our retreat last weekend. It was a hybrid format. Julie Cicora was with us in person and participants joined on ZOOM.
This was new to us, previously it was either zoom, or prior to 2020, in person.
We ran around testing the set up prior to Julie's, arrival, in a very "Martha" way, preparing for a good experience. However, because we did, there was time to listen to the wonderful sessions, in a "Mary" way.
The recordings, and supplemental materials are being prepared for sharing with registrants. Email ctretreats@gmail.com.
Thank you Julie for a wonderful retreat
and being our hybrid test!
|
|
|
|
The retreatants are on the screen in the background.
Left: Kate Bower and Terry Noble, TSC staff.
Julie Cicora, Retreat Leader
is on the right.
Faith Lang, behind the camera.
|
|
Day & Overnight Retreat Spaces
for fully vaccinated individuals & groups
https://www.ctretreats.org/hospitality/accommodations/
ctretreats@gmail.com
https://www.ctretreats.org/contact/
or call 513.771.2171
|
|
"God gives us everything we have, and whenever we are willing to receive the blessing and pass it on, we live in the kingdom of abundance."
Sara Miles in "Jesus Freak"
|
|
Transfiguration Spirituality Center
Hospitality Ministry of
the Society of the Transfiguration
https://www.ctsisters.org/
The Sisters motto "Benignitas, Simplicitas, Hilaritas"
Latin for "Kindness, Simplicity and Joy."
Read about their start http://anglicanhistory.org/women/evamary/
|
|
Photos by Faith Lang, TSC Guest Services Manager |
|
|
|
|
|
|
