I was amazed when I finally got the first ball untangled from the mess of 4 different spools.  First, I was surprised to see that I had two spools of the same color.  After I had gotten the first 2 undone, I was relieved to know that I was halfway there.

Having been a devoted crocheter a year and a half ago, I had finally felt peace with my life and decided to pick it up again.  When I returned, things were in a mess.

I don’t mean to keep dwelling upon the past, but it just reminds me of my situation from long ago.  After my accident, things were a mess.  You can imagine how hard it was being a young athletic girl suddenly finding out that I couldn’t walk.

Back to the yarn, once I found the end of one yarn untangled, I noticed it was the other end of the yarn that I was trying to separate!  So, here I am, with only 2 different colors of yarn, and 4 separate ends.  I get one yarn unwound, only messily winding them on top their respective skeins.  But then, the navy blue is all undone from the other colors, but its still caught in a web of tangles.  After that is finally taken care of (or I get too close to it with a pair of scissors), I vow to sit there and wind them into balls.

This is like a metaphor to life almost: from this difficult situation, it takes awhile, but then I realize how this is a blessing in disguise.  If I had gotten the dark blue string totally unwound, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to wind it into a ball (the other end has the shawl that I’m making), so it actually turns out good that I need to cut the yarn.  Now I can wind the other end into a ball!  The same is true about my horrible car accident, if that didn’t happen, I would not have done a lot of things that I have accomplished.  My life would be completely different.   I would not have chosen the field of study that I did, (being in all of that rehab helped me see that I would like to help others in the same type of situation) so as to work at the nursing home,  or have even met my husband.  We met on  MySpace, the big internet social networking site from like 10 years ago, because he had seen that we had gone to the same high school and college.  Who knows? If my accident hadn’t have happened, I may have been involved with someone else, not having gone to Longwood College (I attended because they have THE BEST THERAPEUTIC RECREATION major in which I wanted to pursue a career), met wonderful friends in college, my place of employment and of course the older adults that I care for.

So, no matter how tangeled life may get, keep your mind open to see the blessings coming from the storms.

“Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.”

-Joseph Addison