Have you stopped to thank a veteran today?
For the price of freedom they had to pay?
Did you gaze into those distant eyes?
Did you see the ghosts he can’t deny?
Did you think a soldier’s heart was made of steel?
Because he was trained to kill, he couldn’t feel?
Did you see the guilt written on his face,
For the loss of life he can’t replace?
Did you know he mourns the lives he couldn’t save,
And walks with comrades in their grave?
Did you remember the boy with innocence lost?
Do you really know war’s ultimate cost?
Have you felt the blast of artillery fire?
Do you have the courage it would require?
Have you stood in trenches consumed with fear?
Felt the enemies breath so very near?
Have you walked with God on a battleground?
Seen your brothers dead or dying all around?
Have you stopped to thank a vet today,
Or did you just turn and walk away?
From the pain he’ll carry for the rest of his life,
Did you consider his family, his children, his wife?
That watch him suffer in silence each and every day,
As he’s haunted by memories that don’t go away?
Did you care that the soldier is still pulling guard?
That his heart, mind, and soul will forever be scarred?
Do you know how he suffers from ptsd?
Or that our precious freedom is never free?
Did you care that he still hears the blood curdling screams?
Or that he returns to the war each night in his dreams?
Have you felt the sorrow of a combat vet?
Or would you rather just forget?
That war has pierced his hardened heart,
And torn this soldier all apart?
Would you rather our heroes just fade away?
Or will you stop to thank a vet today?

…Chris X
United States of America
(used with permission)

********************************

Check out Joan’s Ugliest Pattern Contest! WHOOPs…

Hey Daria! I’m with ya – I just went and joined her Acrylics Anonymous Webring… COME OUT into the LIGHT all Ye who are NOT “… afraid to show your acrylic love!”

check out Kristyn’s entry about her *Tan Line* fiasco – my nephew once told me my arms looked like Frosted Mini-Wheats because I was so tan on ONE SIDE ONLY!

Krista Jo has some GRRRRRrate! tippage on buttonbands and collars in her current entry – hey, Krista, how YOU doin’ – my fave buttonband is a sew-on type too!

I’m enjoying the marvelous poetry over at Maggi’s site – check out her writing by visiting her links on the left hand side of page under the heading: *Poetic Stitches*

********************************

A most heartfelt Message of Love and Sympathy on the passing of Greta’s beloved Tasha…

the smiles after the tears? – Greta writes: “Sometimes Mercy and Grace pour down all at once and you just have to say YES.”

The past two weeks have been a real weather humdinger in the Midwest. Today is the first day in MANY with clear skies and bright sun!

I KNOW there is great joy and lightness of heart in many, many households today as the flood waters recede and life can start to point in the direction NORMAL.

I’ve spent many hours in the flood areas working and taking pictures of the dedicated efforts of so many – it is absolutely unbelievable how folks draw together during crisis to work for endless hours in the face of nature’s challenge. MY hat’s off TO YOU: from the groups of High School Students, to Churches, to neighbors, to Girl & Boy Scouts, to Sheriff Sheehan’s Work Release guys, to the 3yo who begged his dad to go home and get *his* shovel because he wanted to fill sand bags alongside him, to the drivers of the personal cars who hauled load after load of bags to their neighbors, and even to the drunk guy who showed up at a sand pile at the edge of the river complaining to the cop directing traffic that his neighbor was messing up his lawn and who was met with whistles and catcalls and thumbsdown by everyone else – TODAY the sky salutes YOU…

And just what could this have to do with knitting? In a word: SOCKS…

Do you wear your wool socks in warmer weather? Me neither. Until last week, when I ran out of clean clothes and started raiding the winter storage, pulling out my woolies.

Wool keeps you warm even when it’s wet; it breathes; it really adjusts to your temperature and fondles your feet. And my barkin’ dog-O-feet know whereof they speak as I was on my feet for HOURS & hours, etc, whine, whine, whine, BARK! [And in the northern hemisphere of my bod, I have so many mosquito bites on my head, it approximates a lunar landscape…]

SO, I’m still knitting socks to wear to work. I’ve gone on to Wool/Hemp – some really pretty organic looking sportweight yarn from Dzined and am making these socks whenever I am in a KIP moment when the space is too tight or the time is too short to whip out the Agnes design I’m carrying with me these days.

This yarn makes a really soft, lightweight fabric that I love wearing – I already have a pair from last year that I wear year round…

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My sister, Cat, is the best flea marketer in the universe. On one of her hunts, she found these Argyle Sock Patterns in with some sewing stash. And off to me they came…

Thanks Sis!!! These are really COOL…