Investments:

Some investments are sometimes not intentional or even planned.  But when they happen, when the dividends start showing up, you are glad, yes, you're so very glad, that you did what ever it was that you did, to reap the benefits that you so prize today..

..

Take for instance, looking at this big disorganized pile of scraps, a less global thinking person might be thinking: 'Good Grief!  Clean it up!  Throw it out! Get rid of the mess!'  Then there are the 

Forward Thinkers

that would say,'What a lovely mess of opportunity!'

I suppose you know by now which camp I am firmly entrenched upon.

When my hands sift through the pile of remnants of past projects, I think about all the stories behind each little scrap.  I smile at a well finished project memory and wince at the ill timed inflated image of my talent.  But whatever the response, I am always glad that I have pieces left of each project to stir the memory bank and to busy my hands.  There are always sermon illustrations in most sewing endeavors, just like there is in gardening, parenting and just about everything else.  One could wax poetic about old things made new.  One could take on how we look at the surface but God looks at the heart.  Oh my, yes, we could go on forever about the analogies from this wonderful/crazy pile of memories/fabric.

I'll keep it simple:

Take Your Discards in Life and Make It a New Thing.

Theologically and philosophically sound and a sewist mantra.

In the process of using up my scraps, a most lovely quilt is being made for Pretend Granddaughter Sara and I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying the process.

She will get to be warmed by her 'adopted' family's bits and pieces of their stories created in fabric.  Thinking of her cuddling under the quilt, maybe at a faraway college dorm room or in the bedroom of her future child's room, telling her the stories behind their favorite block, fills me with such a deep satisfaction......

What old/discarded thing in your life can you make new today?