Recovery

This week, I stumbled across a project on Ravelry. I recently joined this group that specializes in charity knitting and contains a ton of different projects group members can participate in. There are some that are applicable to me and some that aren't, but one really stuck out to me. It's called the Recovery Buddies Project and focuses on creating, basically, smiley face pillows that are sent to those in recovery from various forms of mental illness. It was posted on the Ravelry group because the project leaders have a large wait list and they cannot keep up with the need for these buddies. Since I need a momentary distraction from the Double Vision Blanket, I put these on my to do list. The summary of the project from their blog describes it better than I have:

The Recovery Buddies Project is a team of people from around the world who hand knit "recovery buddies" to help people through a variety of addictions including eating disorders, self-injury as well as others. We strive to remind people that they are not alone in their addictions, and that they don't have to be alone in their recovery.

If you go to the website, you can see pictures of the different buddies that have been created throughout the project. Each buddy has a name and a story in order to make it a more personal experience for the recipients. I made two buddies in the last three days and will send them soon. They knit up very quickly and were a very easy project.



Making these buddies had me thinking - why don't I base their "stories" on people I know? I decided to take my own twist on that and base them off of people that have hurt me and I have had trouble forgiving. Although I didn't name them directly after the people, I won't post any more information on them or the stories because I don't want that information floating around blogland. In addition, I obviously don't want the actual buddies to have any negativity for the people they are intended for, so I wrote stories that pointed out the positive aspects of these people that I need help forgiving. I think that they are symbols about how I can turn my own hurt into something that will hopefully help someone heal from their own struggles. For some reason forgiveness is sometimes a confusing subject to me because it balances on the line of letting go of the pain caused in part by others and protecting yourself from future hurt. I think it's fair to say that forgiveness is a form of recovery, and that we are all in pursuit of recovery in one way or another.

"Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it."
- Mark Twain