`The Mantle of My Life

I’m thinking about a quilt, like a blanket my grandmother knitted for me. Soft pink yarn intertwined with itself, looping one stitch into another until they form one uniform cover that can rest gently on a sleeping baby to keep her warm through the night.

Candy Valle, as many people knew her, was an effervescent being who could light the room when she sat at the piano. Actually, in my memory, she always lit up the room! She was so alive in everything she did. Mima taught me many things through my life. She’s teaching me again, from the other side.

Today, I was meditating on family and friends, the ones who are intricately woven into our lives, whose very existence plays a big part in my own regardless of how we may feel about each other.

What if, I wondered, there was more to this existence? Then I saw that blanket in my mind’s eye.

Mima was always working on something. In the memory of an awed granddaughter, each day, she would stitch a section. When she had to stop for the day, she would carefully put the knitting away to start again the next day.

How does this play a part in my family meditation? Let’s say every being in our lives was linked to us like the days of a blanket. Each day being a different person in our lives. In the end, when the blanket is finished, the daily sections cease being pieces and become a whole – a blanket with which to wrap your granddaughter.

This is how life is to me.

Each person in my life, present or past or future, plays a part in the formation of a mantle that encompasses my existence in this world. If you look closely, every part is not perfect. There are dropped stitches in my life. There are rows that were not binded off as perfectly as my grandmother would have done, but it is my blanket, every knit and purl was the doing of a Creator that has my best interests in mind. The stitched-over mistakes made into this creation were caused by my own refusal to work with His Will.

With this revelation, I understand how much everything I have experienced plays a part in the final work I will use to wrap around myself in the afterlife.

I won’t wait until then to enjoy this work that is the life of Mariolga Fernandez Locklin (now Starkey). I wrap myself in my memories every night. I thank the Lord for the blessings that have become a part of me, because I am grateful for every experience I have ever had. I know every dropped stitch is a gentle reminder of my weaknesses. Every bind-off created to enable the next row to begin with a fresh stitch for the next day.

This mantle of my life looks like it’s going to be beautiful, thanks to every one of the people in my life. I send out my love and gratitude to everyone involved.

With much love,

The Dragonfly’s Student

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