Knitting and the Heart
© Suzanne Griffith
It was one of those times in my life when I was finally getting organized. I had decided what was important to me: my family, my creative work (writing and fiber arts), and nature, especially my garden. After hearing many recommendations for years, I finally exchanged a few dollars for Stephen R. Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, and I was scheduling my activities around my own personal priorities.
Oddly, though, I wasn't getting much done, except in the garden. I think I was enjoying that because it got me away from my desk - and the iron bars of my schedule - into the real world of dirt and bugs and hairy roots.
Something else I was able to do was knitting. The handspun alpaca and wool shawl I was making satisfied the sense of touch with its soft and rough texture.
Then came a Wednesday night, a third helping of pizza, and a heart attack - pain like concrete blocks pounding on my chest, a trip in a bumpy ambulance, the whirl of the emergency room, and at last a quiet place in intensive care. "Bring me my blue notebook and my brown knitting," I told my husband. I told my daughter the same thing, and the two of them finally managed to get it to me a few hours later. Our house is only six blocks from the hospital, but my dear and beloved family becomes disorganized in times of crisis.
When my knitting arrived - the shawl - I took it out of the bag and felt it. I had had too much morphine to actually do anything with it, but it was a comfort to me, like a teddy bear to a child, and I was able to sleep. A cardiologist dropped by in the morning and informed me that I had had a mild heart attack. He said I couldn't work in the garden for at least six weeks and I couldn't get the dental work I need for six months. As he was walking out the door of the room, I asked, "Can I knit?" He stopped for a moment and said, "Yes, you can knit."
I did a little knitting in the next two days of sleeping and being measured and poked. Now that I'm home, I feel differently about my knitting. I start to relax when I pick it up. The process of knitting seems smoother and more rhythmic. I've been thinking that I should put the shawl aside and knit something lighter for summer, but I just can't let it go yet.
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