Scraps of life ......

Yesterday, I drove to the grocery store.  OK -- I'm discovering it is soooo worth driving an hour and a half to go shopping at Stringtown.  I went to pick up Clear-Gel that I forgot on the trip last week.  And before I knew it .... I spent my entire grocery budget!  Not counting the meat market I stopped at .... and the cheese store .... and I needed milk to make some quark! 

Yea ..... it was a fun trip.

I went by myself .... and I needed it!!! Just those moments to drive and to think and to reflect.  Total silence. No CD's.  No radio.  No air conditioning.  Just the music of the countryside ... singing its oh-so unique song along the Iowa hills.

Saturday was our 11th wedding anniversary. And I was reveling in the magnificent feeling of love! How very blessed I was to meet Honey.  How I never imagined what a wonderful life we would have. How eleven years flew by so fast.  How eleven years felt like we have always been together. 

But along the way .... there are barn quilts.  And you know how I love a barn quilt!! (Or five!!! One more ... I promise just one more and I will stop!!!)

Quilting is a lot like a marriage.  We all bring in the scraps of life into it.  An old relationship, a previous marriage, our parents, the family down the street, our jobs.  Many pieces and scraps go into that quilt of a marriage.

Sometimes .... those scraps are at odds.  Pieces of pink and blue...  at odds with each other.  Standing separate, yet side-by-side. Seamed,  yet distant.  A union never truly sewn together. Two people ... living separate lives in the same home..

Thankfully, our marriage seems to be one where the pieces are blended together with a fine seam. Perfect points, square corners.... a price winning quilt.  The colors have become one.  Shades of not pink and blue, but lavender. Separate pieces that work together to become a warm and loving blanket. A blanket to protect each other from the chill of the winter and the harshness of life.

Happy Anniversary Honey.

I love you.

C