Learning something new

Yesterday was an interesting day.

I wrote a dark blog post.

Southeast Louisiana was hit by a number of tornadoes, one of them very large.

I wrote a few words in my novel.

I taught myself to knit.

After writing my blog post, in which I admitted I was stuck in a dark place, the weather got dark too.  My phone is registered with the emergency broadcast system here, so it alerted me multiple times that tornadoes had been sighted in my area.  The emergency alerts advised me to take cover, and be prepared for a tornado to strike.

We were lucky, others around me were not.  Two tornadoes touched down within five miles of my house, one to the west, and one to the east.  The tornado to the east was large and the damage devastating.  Fortunately, no lives were lost, although it will be many months to years for those affected to rebuild.

The randomness of a tornado is a powerful reminder of how quickly a life can be changed forever.  Tornadoes aren't political, or religious.  They are not motivated by hate or love, by fear or by courage.  They are simply an awesome force of nature.

How you vote or what you believe won't protect you from a tornado, nor will it condemn you to be in the path of a tornado.

For all that we try to control our environment and the things that happen to us, tornadoes remind us that we are not in control.

My regular readers know how much I cherish the illusion of control.  I desperately needed something positive yesterday.  There lies the rest of this particular story.

My husband bought me a storage container for my yarn.  As I have gotten more and more enthusiastic about my crochet hobby, my yarn inventory has grown.  I have been keeping my yarn in a large Amazon box on the floor of my bedroom.

On Friday night, Scarlett decided to jump into the box and throw yarn out.  She also scratched and kicked and made a mess out of my yarn.  My husband decided a more stable storage system was needed.  So the storage cart arrived yesterday.

As I was sorting through my yarn, I found a bag of yarn I had purchased from the sale bin at JoAnn's craft store over a year ago.  It was shiny and on sale and so I bought it.  I never found anything to make out of it, and didn't like how it looked when crocheted.

So, I fired up YouTube and watched a couple of instructional videos on knitting and taught myself to knit.  I used really big needles, because that is what I had handy.  (I use them as broomstick lace pins for crochet.)

Here is the product so far:

And here is what I learned besides how to knit a scarf using the garter stitch.

I learned I like crocheting better than knitting.  (But maybe that is because I am better at it.)

I learned that learning something new is exciting and invigorating.

I learned that opening up to something new sparks creativity and joy.

I learned that I can still improve my state of mind by choosing activities that lift me up rather than bring me down.

I learned that even an impulsive decision can lead to something good if you just keep looking for a way to make it good.

I also learned that even writing something dark opens me up to looking harder for the light.

I know I will still have to struggle to stay positive until I get myself reconditioned to finding the positive and to seeing the light.

But I have another weapon in my arsenal now.

Learning, especially a tactile learning experience is very uplifting for me.  Who knows what will be next?