Knitting.

Last night I learned to knit.

I have wanted to learn for a long time now, and I finally asked some people to teach me the ways. 

So...  friends and I hung out at a local eatery and chatted and ate and drank tea and hot cocoa and knitted. 

It was a GREAT time.

I haven't had a night out in awhile that didn't revolve around obligation (meetings, rehearsal, the like...) and just sitting and conversing with friends about the directions our lives are headed and where we've been in the past few months was a lovely breath of fresh air.

It reminded me how much I love those women and how much I love where things have been going in my life this year.

This is not going to be my reflective post on 2010 - saving that one for tomorrow or Sunday, but I do want to say here that last night was the a part of the icing on a magnificent cake that has been this past year.

There have been hardships and battles and big decisions, but in the end, I must say, looking back of the year, things were good.

...in spite of the soreness in my fingers from just a few rows of knit stitch  :-)

I remember just a few months ago a friend blogged about her "community" and her "place" and I wondered if there was such a thing in my life.  At the time, I thought - maybe not?

But after last night I remember other times that felt like that - sitting at a diner with a friend in NYC, Bible studies at a local coffee house, java with former students, the entire weekend at Sheila and Steve's for last year's State One Act Festival...  yes.  There are communities and "places" that I treasure.  And people.  There are SO many people who have affected me in beautiful ways this year - kind ways and painful ways and growing ways and Godly ways and thinking ways - the molding and shaping of me has been so refined by those around me in 2010.  By the people.  Some I know personally.  Some I don't.  All I love.

I want to make some sort of metaphor here about my experiences with community and falling in love with the people around me that has to do with knitting, but I can't think of anything very clever at the moment - so I'll leave you with this:

It's not so perfect.  In fact, it's kind of messy and lumpy and unfinished.  But...  it's me.  And I'm still learning.