WindChill of Shadow

Tired. Still coughing my head off, though perhaps less than yesterday. Not too surprising, as I spent three hours on the phone this morning, split between Queenie and my friend Cee Squared from Minnesota, and then over an hour in a Zoom later in the afternoon. I canceled my dental appointment at noon. I'll pay for it later by having to make another one, but for now, it feels as if I'm playing hooky and getting away with it.

Queenie and I were reminiscing about collaging and making samplers back in the days of our youth. I used to enjoy embroidering things. I was convinced this was one of the arts that a proper grownup should know how to do, and I liked it. I embroidered gothic initials on my father's handkerchiefs, and when I was eight, I made a large sampler with a red heart surrounded by wheat stalks, and the motto "Let love through all your actions run." I looked this up today and found it was from a poem by Isaac Watts, adjuring little children to be kind to each other and not fight. I am at heart a lover, not a fighter. I had to get tough because reasons, but a motto like "Si vis pacem, para bellum" would seem incongruous on a sampler by a little girl. And hearts are more decorative than hand grenades. I wonder how I had the time to make all those things as a child, and where all that time went!