Yo La Tejo

Threads and prayers

I came across this passage in my reading a while ago, and remembered that I wanted to share it (I inserted paragraph breaks for readability):

"They had whispered among them, las mujeres de la familia, about grandmother and how much of a nervous viejita she was...The only thing which calmed her nerves was to sit by the lantern and crochet.

When Petra's father was sick, tomorrow came and went and came and went until her father died and tomorrow still came and went and grandmother had crocheted perfect little diamonds through it all. What thoughts had gone through her grandmother's mind as she crocheted, what threads looped and knotted and disguised themselves as prayers?

And what had Petra learned from the trembling fingers which pulled a fine thread into the hook of the crocheting needle with such patience that the stitching was as intricate and as weather resistant as a spider's web? If only Petra was capable of crocheting, if only she could feel the threads slip in and out of her fingers like her grandmother once did, she wouldn't feel as if her own prayers turned into soot above her"(165-166).

This is from Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena Maria Viramontes, copyright 1995. Isn't it beautiful? I did an intricate cross-stitch once for Christmas, for my mom, and I worked on it during the final year or two of my marriage. It was a wreath, with different birds--a cardinal, bluebirds, sparrows. Every time I look at it hanging in my parents' living room, I think about what each stitch represents, and how it kept me sane.

posted by Olga @ 4:01 PM