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Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival - Pelts

Sometime back in May, my daughter and I visited the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.  She insisted on going after she saw my photos and heard of my adventurous day at Rhinebeck back in October of 2010. We had the pleasure of getting up at the crack of dawn, which surprisingly is rather nice.  The air is still, the movements are an otherwise busy sidewalk is pleasantly at peace.  Riding the subway is wonderful. . .no on pushing. . .no smelly bodies to contend with LOL.

So, we start on our journey to meet the bus at the Atlantic Avenue Station in Downtown Brooklyn.  You will be surprised to know how many buses line up very early there.  Buses bringing families to meet their incarcerated loved ones.  Yes, we almost went to one of those inadvertently, but were smart enough to ask where this bus was headed before we boarded!

We finally meet our bus, get on, sleep a good portion of the way and finally arrive!

My mission was to buy three items:  1.  I was on a mission to find the pelt I left behind in Rhinebeck; 2.  Finding a drop spindle; and 3.  Purchasing fiber.

Alyssa and I wasted no time looking for a vendor who was selling pelts.  We came across so many but none was fitting the description I was looking for until finally I came to a vendor who was selling pelts.  To my amazement, it was the same vendor, woman and set up I had left behind in Rhinebeck.  I immediately dove into the piles of pelts in hopes of finding the one I left behind.  Alyssa and I searched and searched but to no avail.  The woman noticed us and asked if she could help.  We explained our story and in particular the conversation of that last pelt I left behind.  She was so kind. . .she helped us look but we found not that one pelt I so longed for.

I resigned myself to accepting something different.  Different is not 'bad' or 'good'; its just 'different'.  We came across three pelts, two were similar and one was totally different!  The two pelts were quite spotted and marbled.  They are beautiful:

You can see how spotted and marbled their coats are, two different sheep, spotted, marbled but yet different.  They are unique.

Isn't that like us?  We are the same, yet we are different and unique.  Different patterns, different colorings and shades,  still quite unique, we are all on a road, a journey; we share many things along the way but yet we travel these roads with different outcomes.

Ah but the third pelt was the one, not the actual one I was in search for, but very similar yet very different:

This pelts coloring is pretty even except for the two spots.  Interestingly one is black the other white and you know, life is not really black and white.  We like to think so, but for the most part we really live within the grey areas of life and so we should.  There are some very absolutes in life, but mostly everything is relative.

This little animal was probably put down because of those inconsistencies on its pelt, but look how interesting it is.  Just like we are.  We become more interesting if we allow the Potter to do his handiwork on our lives.

The vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter. —Jeremiah 18:4

Sometimes our vessels need to be broken in order to be made new and better.  Maybe that's what my journey is about. To be made better.  I'm getting groomed, like a sheep gets groomed. . .

Presently the sheep in the photo is getting groomed; it is restrained, but soon it will walk with grace and freedom once its master's done. . .

grace: 

elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action; a pleasing or attractive quality or endowment.

freedom: 

the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint.

The pelts came from, are you ready for this:  FREEDOM FARMS and the woman's name was: GRACE.

My life continues to be different.  It will never be the same as it was with Gee.  I am coming to terms with that with each day I wake and fall asleep.

Psalm 30:5 NKJV

For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joycomes in the morning.

Mercy Me - Homesick (Live)

Michael W. Smith - Healing Rain

Time Marches Forward. . .Letting Go

I recently had to purchase a new refrigerator.  WHOA wonderful great!!! Well, its funny how we associate things with our past and letting go. 

This 'old refrigerator' had been installed from the inception of the home I presently live in.  I remember how I prayed that GOD would supply a home that was 'clean', we wanted to be the first people to live in that brand new freshly painted home.  GOD honored that and he blessed us with our home.  That was 20 years ago.

Well getting back to the refrigerator.  The old refrigerator now had to go.  I did my research and found the one I wanted.  The new refrigerator came and the old one was taken out.  That felt very strange.  That 'old' refrigerator was there for all the big and small events.  Birthdays, more birthdays, Thanksgivings, Christmases, Easters, Mothers' and Fathers' Day(s), etc. and it was the refrigerator where Gee got his last ice and drink from.  Boy did he love ice in his drinks! 

GOD's word says that HE would never leave us nor forsake us.  Eventually all stops working, but GOD does neither sleep nor slumber.  HE never stops working.   GOD never has a "time out" time. . . HE is ever so present.

Now it is time to hook up the new refrigerator to the water supply line.  I have been blessed to have two family members who specialize in 'plumbing'.  They are willing to do the work for me.  So the other night my daughter's father-in-law came to inspect the hook ups and see what would be needed to do the job.  He came, he looked, he assessed the work and out the door he went.  What a strange feeling that was afterward.  To realize my home did not have a "man" in it; no head of household.  I had become a single person and the head of the household.  How strange and still my home suddenly felt.

Each night reminds me of how I am a single woman once again.  I am the HEAD of my household but yet I am not alone. . .GOD provides sleep to help me through the next day and experiences I need to grow in this life.  My journey is not over. . .

Jesus I Surrender by Jeff Deyo

The words to this song have been in my heart all week. 

Recently I was pondering 'sheep'.  Thinking about these lovely creatures and the beautiful fibers they give the world while still being alive.  You see, sheep are sheared once or twice a year of their coats.  They are not killed for their fibers such as mink, fox, seals, etc.  These coats are called fleece which are then weighed, sorted by various criteria and sold.  Spinners make their selections then sent to have the fleece processed by a mill, or they, the spinners will do the processing themselves.  The mills send the finished washed fleece back to the spinner who then begins a process of what is called 'carding', to us, that would be sort of like combing the fleece and then the process of 'spinning' begins to end with a product that you and I know as 'yarn'.

These beautiful animals come in many breeds, shapes, sizes, colors and temperaments.  The fiber can be crimpy, straight, short, long, or curly.  Every continent has a variety of sheep that does well in that climate and region.  Some can withstand temperatures of very cold while others can withstand hot temperatures.

On a visit to Rhinebeck, New York, I discovered that these animals respond to touch.  They are soft animals in that they enjoy human touch and company.  Sometimes they will reach into your coat pockets to draw out whatever they can find.  When you touch them you immediately feel their warmth and you feel their trust in you.  When you place your hand on the base of their horns, that area is so warm so inviting,  and as you move further up their horns, you realize it becomes less warm and begins to feel tepid.

Sheep graze off the grass on the land.  They become like living lawn mowers.  I began to think how do sheep apply to me as a spiritual learning ground.  Am I like a living lawn mower, grazing on the Word of GOD, chewing on it and digesting it?  Am I gentle as the sheep and do I know and recognize the voice of the one I must follow?

The Bible encourages us to be like 'sheep'.  And yet the word of GOD also says that while we were yet being formed in our mother's womb HE knew us.  HIS word also says that HE knows the very number of hairs on our heads.  So you might think well sheep are sort of the same and roam in flocks or herds, so how can GOD know me if I look and sound like the rest of the herd?  Well,  just like there are different breeds that are unique, so are we.  Just like there are temperamental sheep, so can we be as well.  Each sheep makes a slightly different sound when it vocalizes itself, so can we.  HOLY SPIRIT knows our deepest groanings from deep inside our bowels.

God knows when we are in the valley. "Psalms 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for YOU are with me; YOUR rod and YOUR staff, they comfort me."  Sheep are found high in the mountains and low in the valleys according to their breeding regions.

I am walking a valley, but I have hopes that one day I will pass through and out of this valley.  You see, in order to reach the hills and then the mountain tops, we have to first go through the valleys.  Some of our valleys can take longer than others, but eventually we will come out of them.  I know that many believe Psalms 23 is meant only to those who are near death, etc. but we can derive so much from this piece of scripture if we only allow Holy Spirit to speak to our hearts.

We like sheep do sometimes stray, but did you know that many sheep remember where they were born and return to that place?  Why did GOD likened us to the sheep, well sheep are trusting.  And so we like sheep, must trust the Great Shepherd.

Bittersweet

Laughing and crying = Sun shining brightly with rain showers and eventually the RAINBOW comes out!!