Happy Monday morning. I had to dust through some major cobwebs to get to this blog, it's been months since I have written. That's just kind of how I roll. Life is still flowing along with teaching, sharing good health and lots of knitting.
This morning I woke up thinking about being different. This all started when I was reading a knitting blog. You see, I am left handed. I don't knit continental, I don't knit right handed, I just knit. I taught myself, and for the most part my finished product comes out looking like the intended pattern. When I started making more difficult items, such as lace or garments that needed shaping I noticed the problem. In my research I found so many terms: mirror knitting, combination knitting, or even just "learn to knit right handed!". I didn't switch how I write to my right hand, so why in the world would I adjust my hobby by doing it in an unnatural manner?
This led to more thought about myself in general. When I looked up the definitions of several words like rebel, non conformist and free spirit some of each definintion matched me. But none of them in entirety. Hippy is another label that my family fondly uses to refer to me, though they add the "old" in front of it! Others will tell me that I'm not really a hippy, I have never and don't now use drugs, I'm not super liberal etc. So, I'm not a hippy. Same with rebel - I have no plans to overthrow anything, yet I do rebel against many things!
Labels - there really are no labels that define me, other than true. I have learned to be true to who I am. If that means others won't understand me, or agree with me, that is ok. I have grown to love that I am different. I wear my hair long and gray, and not because I'm trying to make a statement. I do so because I like it. I hold strong faith beliefs and rely on God for sustenance of my soul, even when others bash those beliefs. I hold my yarn 'wrong' when I knit, and have to adjust things to make it work because the world only writes patterns for right handed people....... but I knit for pleasure and enjoy making things for others. I work in unconventional jobs, often not making much money - yet I enjoy the task of helping others.
Mostly I love being me. For so many years I didn't. I was trying so hard to be who I thought others expected me to be that I lost who I really was. So sad that it took so long to just dwell in the place God created me to be and rejoice in it. So I will keep on being an old hippy, rebel, free spirit, non conformist, conservative, Jesus loving, opinionated left handed knitter!
Who are you?
Psalm 139:13-14 You made all the delicate inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous - how well I know it. NLT
