Mismatched?

Have you ever come across things in your life that just don't seem to "go" together? Sometimes it's people. I've known of couples who have gotten married. Lots of people said, "It will never last. They're two completely different people." And yet, 30 years later, they're still together!

 I myself have a friend that I met while in college. I can clearly remember the first time I saw her. We were taking 'Intro to Elementary Education' at the same time. (BTW, it was this class that caused me to realize I was NOT cut out to be a teacher. :) I have enormous amounts of respect and gratitude towards those people who have made teaching their life. They are over-worked and under-paid...and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for being there for my kids!!) This gal made some comments on the very first day of class that really shook things up! Wouldn't know, we were randomly put together in a study group. We found out we differ in our thoughts about a lot of things and in some other ways, as well, but yet, many years later, (I won't say just HOW many years;)) I count her among my dearest friends. Even though we are two very different people, somehow we "go" together. :)

We can all think of all sorts of things that don't seem to belong together. One of my favorite appetizers is a piece of cantaloupe wrapped in a thin slice of prosciutto.Fruit and salty meat?? Whoever looked thought of putting those two things together was genius!

In this quest of rethinking what is enough I've realized that I need to start looking at things and thinking about things in new ways. Not just seeing them for what they are on the surface, but looking a little deeper and realizing that there might be more there... or at least another use for them besides their original intended purpose.

I was thinking about this a few weeks ago as I was going through closets and clearing things out. (Crazy, crazy, crazy how things just seem to accumulate over time, isn't it??!) I found some partial skeins of yarn that I had put away. I like to knit. Only simple things: scarves, dish cloths, hats, baby sweaters. That's my repertoire when it comes to knitting. Normally, when I finish a project, there is a little bit of yarn left over. Can't throw it away, right? That would be wasteful...it's perfectly good yarn!

I've never really crocheted much of anything, so thought it might be fun to to crochet myself a scarf. I could use a scarf for this winter. I started with the light green and crocheted a very LONG chain. For my next row, I used some bright red that was left over from a knitted dish cloth. (Side note here...I will never be able to use a regular dish cloth again. The cotton, knitted ones are so much better!) Light green and red don't really "go" together, but it was next in line. I went from one color to the next, and continued to crochet until all of my scraps of yarn were used up.

This will be very warm during the winter! :)

Now, instead of scraps of yarn taking up space in my closet, I have a fun (funky, perhaps?!) and warm scarf to wear this winter. And all of the rows of yarn remind me of people that are part of my life. I think it's important to look at the things (and people and relationships, too) in our lives with new eyes. There may be potential there that you never even imagined!

Peace out,
Lyn