Remindering

You may recall this piece with the dancing ladies; you may remember the frame and the shelf.  In case you don't, when I was in seminary and taking a class on liturgy and time, my project was to design and make a series of wall hangings that reflect the liturgical season.  This one is my favorite, the Easter one, not the one that is hanging now (although I like that one quite a bit, too).  Joe built the frame and shelf out of wood that his father had given him.  It has been up in the entryway of our home for several years, the hanging changing with each liturgical season change.  Sometimes there are things on the shelf; right now there is a seashell and a small pottery bird.

Yesterday's mail brought a lovely thank-you note from friends of our family.  I had made a quilt for them when they learned that the baby they were expecting was a little girl. Their daughter was born pretty close to her anticipated date, but experienced serious complications during the birth process.  A fractured skull caused bleeding into her brain, and she spent the first week or so of her life in the ICU Nursery.  She is at home now, doing well, and only time will reveal any consequences of this early trauma.  A photograph of their sweet daughter was enclosed with the note.

We had the thought last evening that we'd begin to use the liturgical center in a new way.  As a place to keep reminders of those people and things we hold in prayer.  That picture is there now, and tonight I will add a small piece of batik fabric, a bit left from a recent quilt for a friend undergoing a complicated medical treatment.

I always say yes when someone asks me to pray for her.  But sometimes I forget.  This frame is in a high-traffic area of our home.  Now I will have frequent reminders.