I have a partner who knits. She's been working on this gorgeous black and silver blanket for the better part of a year. She doesn't knit fast, in fact, she doesn't even try improve her speed. For her, the reward is to know she is actively creating something while watching a movie, or sitting and talking. Each stitch takes her closer to her goal, but although she will use the blanket when it is done, that's not what it's about.  As soon as she is done, she will start another. She always has to have a project going.  I heard someone ask her once why she doesn't just go out and buy a blanket.  Why waste the time and effort that goes into knitting?

The answer was simple: Not knitting would have felt like a waste of time.  I want to be clear that the motivation here is not to be a mindlessly productive multi-tasking achiever. Remember, she does this really slowly. I think it's much more than that.  I think to know that the blanket is truly hers, each and every loop, provides an added layer of value the materialistic and instant culture we live in just doesn't seem to get.

She's not focused on the result. She's focused on the action. She did not just say "let there be blanket" and there was blanket. It may be mundane, and not magical seeming, but I think the method of taking things stitch by stitch is true magic. Thought becomes will becomes action becomes manifestation. Over and over and over again. The manifest action of knitting a blanket uses the same core principles used in magic.  The practice of those principles in the mundane teaches us that there are no short cuts. For magic to happen, action must be taken. So often, we go from thought, to will, skip action and expect results.

Action is where life happens. Think about it. Live is a verb. Living is not an end result. Neither is magic. I think that's where a daily practice really comes in.  Whatever we do, on a consistent basis, day in and day out creates the links with life (aka magic) that, when we need it, we can call on to help us bring into being that which we need or desire.

That's one heck of a security blanket.

© 2009, Jane R. Hansen