Wedding Guest quilt

I love the way the Universe sends me just what I need. Yesterday I was fussing over what to do next. I have a quilt and half to finish the binding on - neither are in any big hurry so wasn't really motivated to do that. And one of the drawers in my job box has all the material already cut and ready to put together but for some reason, I wanted something else to work on.

And then I get to meet someone who has a quilt project they want help with. When she got married, her mother worked with a quilter in Oregon to create a guest book out of quilt blocks. The guests signed the blocks in permanent ink and the idea was to make a quilt out of all the signed blocks. As she puts it, "9 years and 3 kids later, its still just blocks."

The colors are fantastic fall colors - just like the wedding was. So far, I've gotten the book apart and laid out all the blocks. We decided to put a chocolate brown sash to separate the blocks so I can get started on that tomorrow.

What fun!

Daring Greatly

"Empathy is connecting with the emotion that someone is experiencing, not the event or circumstance."

Before starting this book, I was developing the practice of gratitude - not that this practice has stopped but now I'm adding to it some - based on The Power , The Magic and my own beliefs about non-judgment. The practice of gratitude gives me some powerful examples of "you get what you give."

Empathy is something I've neither given nor received - or frankly understood until now. I can see how talking to someone about an event and having that person respond with "You're not alone" or "I know that feeling." would really help. I expect it would feel like I was supported. And thinking about the conversations I had in the past few days, my friends did respond with stories about their own experiences. At the time, I didn't realize why these stories made me feel so close to my friends but I think I was receiving empathy.

And I can see how just these few minutes of being engaged has made me more open, relaxed about what I'm reading and discovering.

Brene' goes on to talk about studies that have revealed the value of "expressive writing". I've written all my life about one thing or another. And the books I've written always have one or two scenes from my own life in them. The initial effort of putting these experiences down on paper has always felt a little like taking the garbage out - it leaves an empty spot for something else. For me, that's a really uncomfortable prospect here. If I continue to engage in reading and practicing the things in this book, there will be voids in my life (my heart) that will need to be filled and as of this time, I haven't had much luck in filling this kind of emptiness with anything different than the garbage that used to be there.

"You don't need to figure it out or master the information before you engage in conversation." That's the key for me right now. I will keep reading and writing and thinking even though I don't know all the answers or even what the goal is.