Hello, all -
I rarely post here, but since my lace has been keeping me going in these last few days, it feels right to reach out to this wonderful community. First of all, I know that I AM VERY LUCKY in terms of storm damage. I live in NJ in one of the counties hard hit, although I am well inland. Counting my lucky stars that besides a few flickers throughout Monday, I did not lose power. I don't know what it is about power zones and lines above and below ground and such, but the shopping center less than a mile away is without power, but my development remained clear. Wanting to offer a warm bed, warm shower, food, to my friends without my luck, but as of now, many roads that link my friends and I are still in bad shape such that travel is not recommended. Yesterday, I did go out to drive around some cleared areas and was just amazed by power line poles that have just been snapped and lines dragging along the ground (although cleared away from the roadways at some point in the last few days). It is all heartbreaking. And knowing too how long the cleanup will last. I am a teacher, and while the days off from school have been a little "vacation from the regular world," it has been agonizing thinking about what some of my colleagues and what some of my students and their families are dealing with now. I have made a lot of progress on my lace (and my other needlework project) in the last few days and feel ashamed and embarrassed to share that with anyone in my immediate area. "You've been doing what?" (Can you tell I don't have any in-person lace friends nearby?) But, I know folks on this list can understand and appreciate the need to work through stress and anxiety by use of hands and in the effort to create something of beauty. We are going to need lots of beauty in the upcoming days and weeks. I was so looking forward to going to the lace day in northern NJ this upcoming weekend, purely for the brief joy of shopping for threads and perhaps some books in person rather than through the internet. I don't belong to the group (too far to ever feel the sense of belonging), but have been to their lace day a couple of times. Of course, canceling it makes the most of sense, but that doesn't mean that there isn't great sadness and disappointment. Hard to find things to look forward to in this moment. I think I'm going to go back to my lace now. If I could give myself the patience of learning about sharing photos, I would love the support of others via pictures of this rather large lace piece. Thanks for reading and listening, Arlene in NJ - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003/albums/most-recent
