Sunday Reading 10 February 2008
It's Sunday morning. The sun is hidden behind a gray layer of clouds. We've had rain and some snow for much of the week. Temperatures have swung through 30 degree (Fahrenheit) spans from one day to the next. Even as I sit in my kitchen, sipping coffee and writing this, the change winds (to use a phrase from L.E. Modesitt, Jr.) whip around my house. Parts of the U.S. have experienced blizzards. Other parts experienced extreme tornado activity. As I said earlier this week, click the [Help] button you see in the sidebar here, and you can donate to aid those who lost their homes or suffered other property loss to the tornadoes that roared through the south.
Lately I've been working on a theme for Habari and taking my first steps to gain an acquaintance with PHP programming. You can see the theme in action at my test blog, Sag Rising. Thanks to Charity at Design Adaptations, I'll be able to tweak the colors a little better with the Color Wizard, a tool to find colors that fit together in a pleasing way.
The Share a Square project is heading in the direction of success. Change that. It is already a success, though it isn't over. Enough squares have been donated to created each of the 140 afghans we were aiming for, plus some. Over half of the afghans have been completed. Thank you for contributing to this project's success. There are going to be some happy children this summer.
Share a Square has developed an offshoot project, the Share a Square Bag Project. The goal is to create small, handmade bags, approximately 3.5 by 5 inches, to accompany each afghan. The first child who received an afghan didn't want to take the tags off. These bags will allow the tags to be removed, yet saved so the care they represent can be cherished. If you are up to the challenge, see these posts at the Purplemoose Gazette or the Yellow Roses Garden. If you can make one bag or five, thank you.
The preserving of physical points of contacts with memories and emotions is something that took me a long time to understand. I'm not one to collect a things. I'm not one to take a lot of pictures. Many people do, though. It took me a long time to understand that preserving physical points of contact with their memories is one of the reasons behind such behavior. To look at a picture of someone you love or a scene from your life, to hold in your hands something your father, grandmother, wife, or child made or cherished, is to put yourself back in the time when the memory was new. Even while the change winds blow, as they always do whether we hear them or not, we preserve in one space our past, our present, and our future. That picture, that blanket, recalls the weave of our lives.
Technorati Tags: Share a Square, memories, Habari
Hey, Rick. I'm slow on the uptake these days, but did want to thank you for the mention of SAS and the bag project. I'm looking forward to seeing what people decide to make. You've been a major asset, and I can't thank you enough. I'm going to steal your words, "To look at a picture of someone you love or a scene from your life, to hold in your hands something your father, grandmother, wife, or child made or cherished, is to put yourself back in the time when the memory was new. Even while the change winds blow, as they always do whether we hear them or not, we preserve in one space our past, our present, and our future" with a link to you of course :-). Beautiful.
Off to look at your test blog. I'm so jealous. I've been struggling with the template on a blog and can't figure out a bit of it.
I'm looking forward to seeing them, too, Shelly. You had a great idea and have done so much for more than just the children who will receive the afghans. You helped each and every one of us who participated or read about Share a Square.
Feel free to use quote as seems appropriate to you. I appreciate it. And as far as the theme goes, take a page out of Will Shakespeare's book and build on what someone else has done.