Philosophic Musings and Progress

"I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it." Alice Walker, The Color Purple (1982).

While I don't really believe in a Judaeo-Christian God, I think there might be a supreme being and/or a universal consciousness, and there are things like the color purple that are supposed to be reminders of joy. Reminders that there are bright and beautiful things in this world, and those little simple things are to remind you to rejoice. Maybe for other people, there's a different color or frequency that they respond to that reminds them, but for me it's often those simple little things, like an iris, a lupin or a violet. They scream to me, look at this, how can you not be happy when there are these beautiful things and these colors? Or when you hear a song, at the right time and the right place, and you get the shivers, not just because you like the song, but because it hits you the right way and the truth of it reminds you. Or watching the waves crash upon the rocks at the sea coast and watching the colors swirl with the white foam and bubbles of the wave. Or a beautiful hand-dyed skein of yarn screaming with color, soft and silky to the point that you want to roll in it (or maybe that's just me). There can be a hundred other things wrong in your life, that dim your consciousness to the beauty in the world around you, but every now and then for me, just when I seem to need it, a reminder pops up, that says look at this little spark of beauty, how can you not be elated? How can you not remember? How can you not laugh?

And now for something completely different...this week Shawn made a huge leap and cooked two recipes completely on his own without supervision. He made Greek Beef Stew with Feta and Turkey Chili. I now do not have to worry about him subsisting only on deli meat for the rest of his life if I were to get hit by the proverbial bus. It's the first time since we've been together that he has actually cooked anything from scratch. When we met, he had so few cooking skills that making alfredo sauce out of a packet by adding water, milk and butter was a challenge for him. I mean this is huge. Even if it's partially due to the fact that we now need to make diabetic friendly recipes, I am so proud of him for doing it and taking responsibility for doing these things for himself!

We met with the dietician today, and got Shawn a meter to test his blood sugar. She gave us another option for meal planning, the plate method, but I can tell you right now, that's not going to work. I think it would give us too many opportunities to cheat and ignore portion sizes. She seemed to be pushing insulin which was anxiety provoking for both of us. We'll have to have a further discussion with the doc, I guess, but I know we're both hoping to control it with diet and exercise.

In other news, Mya's Jacket pattern is in it's third revision. Several of my knitting peeps have agreed to test knit the jacket for me, and Gina's finished hers. Here's pictures:

Isn't it amazing how different it can look, just by changing the colors and the yarn? Her's is in two pinks, in wool and angora. Mine is in blue, made of cotton. I can't wait to see Jackie's and Lora's!!

I've got two projects on the needles, but I feel like I'm dubbing around until I can wrap up the Jacket and start the next design project.