Stasia's Place Of Grace

     

Saturday, March 20, 2004

 
Happy Vernal Equinox!

Welcome, Spring! Here in Wisconsin, we hit a balmy 56 degrees or so... followed closely by violent winds, and snow this evening. Mother Nature is cleaning house for sure.

To get my mind off the awful whistling outside - I mean, the wonderful fresh breath of spring air (ahem!) - I worked on my prayer strands.

What got me interested in prayer beads? Eleanor Wiley's fantastic book, "A String And A Prayer"!

    Note: If you want to make some prayer beads pertaining to your own spiritual beliefs, the MysticRosary Yahoo Group is a great place to get started. If you're a Catholic and want to make a rosary, The Rosary Shop has kits and supplies and all you'll need to make a very personal one. I get a lot of my beads from Fire Mountain Gems and Shipwreck Beads - share an order with some friends to save on shipping.

I'd been wanting to make an "Earth Rosary" for some time, and what better day than today?

Here are my meditation/affirmation/prayer/what-you-will strands:

From left to right, we have:

The Sleep Strand - a strand to keep at my bedside so I can meditate myself to sleep more easily, and soothe away "scary dream residue" (a SARK quote) if I awaken during the night. The words for these beads are:

    "Night has fallen,
    Day is done,
    Worries have gone with the sun.
    Keep us safe
    Throughout the night,
    Wake us with the morning light."

Yes, I know it's rather simple-minded, but that's the point in the middle of the night! Especially if the night has awful, whistling winds...

The second strand is a rosary which I've had forever, and which got me through a lot of pain when I couldn't stand for three months before my back surgery. I'm not a Catholic, though, and I had a personal problem with a "dead guy on a tree" (absolutely NO disrespect intended to those of Christian faith, especially my well-loved Christian friends!) hanging from my prayer beads. I felt like a hypocrite using them. So today I re-made them, with a heart charm and a pretty divider where the Mary segment was. I think it looks rather Victorian and that it came out well.

Third we have my breathing beads which are made of Raku-fired clay. They have a charm for Chi (Energy) at the base. The moon bead is on top just because the maker sent it along for free with my order. These beads are to help me count my breaths, especially if I'm anxious or tense or liable to overreact to a situation. They fit in my wallet and are comforting to hold.

Finally, on the right we have the Earth Rosary strand. I used Jasper stones, and divided them by color to represent the transitions from one season to the next. There are 13 beads for each of four seasons - one for each week of that season - and four larger, faceted beads to represent the two solstices and two equinoxes that take place as we pass through the year.

I made it circular with no dangly-fobs or anything hanging off of it to indicate the never-ending cycle/spiral of the seasons. With this strand, each bead represents a full, deep breath during which I meditate on aspects of the particular season, and those things for which I'm grateful that take place at that time of year.

On that strand, we have fall on the bottom left, summer on the bottom right, spring on the top right, and winter on the top left. I got three inexpensive strands of Jasper stones in order to have enough gradiation in color to choose from - the changes are very subtle, though you can't tell from the photo. I especially like the red-white, late-autumn beads (representing early snows), and the white-green, early spring beads (representing bulbs peeking up through the snowdrifts).


I meant to decorate eggs using the Ukranian pysanki method today but first I had to make an egg-rest out of a piece of wood and some nails, and between that and the beads and the wind - did I mention the wind? - I got a little too worn out. So watch for the eggs next week, if they turn out!

Back to knitting the Noro Silk Garden diagonal vest!

May you have a blessed spring!


Animal Breed Zip Code

Welcome To Stasia's Blog

Stasia is a knitter, spinner, weaver, writer, reader, and musician from Wisconsin, USA.

Join her here as she journals about beauty in nature, the joys of fibery pursuits, special people and pets, and great places to shop. It's her hope you'll leave spiritually inspired and creatively motivated. Thanks for visiting!

Mini Me

Recent Comments

Fab Fiberarts Rings

Knitting Bloggers
Previous | Next


List | Previous | Next


Previous | Next


Previous | Next


Previous | Next


Previous | Next

Buds' Blogs

Need To Mellow Out?


Daily Zen


Light A Candle

Need An Excuse?

My Fiber Pusher

The Knotty Sheep

Download Me

Subscribe To This Blog

Subscribe with Bloglines

Subscribe to Stasia's feed

Hear Me

Stasia's Place Podcast

Past Entries

Please come visit my new home at Yarn And A Barn -...
New Address
We Love Our Pets
Random Acts of Kindness Week
Sunday Funnies
Pink Scarves Are Easy
Yes Indeedy, Some Fiber News
All Creatures Great And Small
Holey Moley - Twins!
Visions Of Sugarplums...

July 28, 2002 August 04, 2002 August 11, 2002 August 18, 2002 August 25, 2002 September 01, 2002 September 08, 2002 September 15, 2002 September 22, 2002 September 29, 2002 October 06, 2002 October 13, 2002 October 20, 2002 October 27, 2002 November 03, 2002 November 10, 2002 November 17, 2002 November 24, 2002 December 01, 2002 December 08, 2002 December 22, 2002 December 29, 2002 January 05, 2003 January 12, 2003 January 19, 2003 January 26, 2003 February 16, 2003 February 23, 2003 March 02, 2003 March 09, 2003 March 16, 2003 March 23, 2003 March 30, 2003 April 06, 2003 April 27, 2003 May 04, 2003 May 11, 2003 May 18, 2003 June 01, 2003 June 08, 2003 June 15, 2003 June 22, 2003 June 29, 2003 July 06, 2003 July 13, 2003 July 27, 2003 August 03, 2003 August 10, 2003 August 17, 2003 August 31, 2003 September 14, 2003 September 28, 2003 October 05, 2003 October 12, 2003 October 26, 2003 November 09, 2003 November 16, 2003 November 23, 2003 November 30, 2003 December 07, 2003 December 14, 2003 December 21, 2003 December 28, 2003 January 11, 2004 January 18, 2004 January 25, 2004 February 08, 2004 February 22, 2004 March 07, 2004 March 14, 2004 March 21, 2004 March 28, 2004 April 04, 2004 April 18, 2004 May 09, 2004 May 16, 2004 June 06, 2004 June 13, 2004 June 20, 2004 June 27, 2004 August 01, 2004 August 08, 2004 August 22, 2004 August 29, 2004 September 05, 2004 September 12, 2004 September 19, 2004 November 21, 2004 November 28, 2004 December 05, 2004 December 19, 2004 December 26, 2004 January 02, 2005 January 09, 2005 January 23, 2005 January 30, 2005 March 06, 2005 April 03, 2005 May 08, 2005 May 15, 2005 May 29, 2005 June 05, 2005 June 12, 2005 June 19, 2005 July 03, 2005 July 10, 2005 July 17, 2005 July 31, 2005 August 14, 2005 August 28, 2005 September 04, 2005 September 11, 2005 September 18, 2005 November 06, 2005 November 13, 2005 November 27, 2005 December 04, 2005 December 11, 2005 December 25, 2005 January 01, 2006 January 08, 2006 January 22, 2006 March 26, 2006 April 09, 2006 April 16, 2006 April 23, 2006 April 30, 2006 May 07, 2006 May 14, 2006 June 04, 2006 June 25, 2006 September 03, 2006 November 05, 2006 November 12, 2006 November 19, 2006 November 26, 2006 December 24, 2006 January 07, 2007 January 21, 2007 January 28, 2007 February 11, 2007 February 18, 2007 February 25, 2007 September 30, 2007

About Me

My Home Page - Updating

I Support...

The Tibet Fund
Citizens For A Free Tibet
Monadnock Humane Society
The National Primate Research Exhibition Hall (NPRX)
The Primate Freedom Project

Your Click Helps At...

The Animal Rescue Site

I Believe...

I'm Involved...

I Listen To...

Important Note

We have a new ISP and my web pages are being moved. My old URLs will not work unless you go here and type them in to get an archived copy. As I upload the pages to the new server, the links in my sidebar will become clickable again. Sorry for the inconvenience.

My Patterns

Knit Koigu Kersti Shawl
Gaugeless Toe-Up Socks
Knit Beehive Hat
Knit Fingerless Mitts
Knit PodPocket For iPod Mini

My Websites

Dyeing Experiments and Instructions - Updating
Textile and Fiberarts Pages - Updating
Beekeeping Pages - Updating
Take The Spindle Quiz!

My Amazon Wish List

...Is Here

My Froogle Wish List

...Is Here

My Photos

www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from jeffnstasia. Make your own badge here.

Pet Rats Rule!


To The Ratlist
Image By Ophelia

Send Me E-mail

jeffnstasia[AT]yahoo[DOT]com

The Weather In Eau Claire, WI

The WeatherPixie



moon phases
 

Give My Dog A Bone

Adopt Your Own Virtual Pet!

Hosted By Blogger.com

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Stats By SiteMeter.com