A bittersweet memory from July 2010.

This prayer shawl was made from James C Brett Marble Chunky in a lovely raspberry shade. My project page on Ravelry is here from which you will see that the reason for that particular stitch pattern is explained.

This is inspired by the Original Prayer Shawl which uses a K3P3 repeat to make a textured pattern. My LYS owner has been making one. However mine will have a 4 st repeat so that I can use as my mantra,
“I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you” which is the Ho’oponopono blessing.

On July 10th, I wrote this blog post in which I explained further the meaning of the blessing.

My view of the meaning of this blessing is as follows:

• myself to myself (I am healing hurts against myself)
• myself to others (I am healing my relationships with other people)
• myself to the Earth and the Universe (I am healing any transgressions against nature)
• on behalf of all humans to the Earth and the Universe

In this way, good karma is being created, which will benefit us all. My belief is that we are all connected. Anything that affects one person affects us all. Anything that harms Mother Earth affects us all. We are all part of one organism.

And the finished shawl appeared in this blog post at the end of July.

I’m going to give this to my friend Anne, who has had inflammatory breast cancer for two and a half years. Her health has gone up and down since her diagnosis, she’s tried various cures from allopathic to alternative, and she’s currently on morphine and steroids which are helping with the inflammation and pain. We’ve been friends for 11 years, having met through the homeschool support group. Despite the heat, I hope she will get some use from the shawl.

I did not realise at the time I started this shawl that it would end up going to my best friend, Anne, who had been suffering from inflammatory breast cancer for over two years. But she was sleeping on the couch because lying down was too painful and I was moved to give it to her, to help her keep warm and hopefully offer comfort. She died five weeks later. I still miss her.