"I don't know."

"You talked about the first principle again, but I still don't know what it is," I said to Suzuki.

"I don't know," he said, "is the first principle."

                                                             Shunryu Suzuki

Not knowing allows you to see the everything around you with new eyes. Everything is full of new possibilities. Not knowing is the beginning of questions. Many years ago, when my son was in college, he wrote:

"Questions necessitate a certain mental position. It is a position of openness and vulnerability. To truly ask a question is to stand receptively before a raw and mysterious world. What, in the end, could be more human than that?"   Albert Z.

When I read this, I wrote it in my journal. I think about the truth of this often. At so many levels, to know is to shut down. In the place of knowing, there is no need for questions. It is a closed place, a safe place, a place where curiosity is marginalized. Questions are the principle act of any new creation, and, in most cases, an answered question simply breeds more questions. What am I doing? Why am I doing it? What do I want it to look like? What colors will I use? Where do I go from here? My initial answer to all of these is "I don't know." It is in this place that magic is real...anything can be.

If you have animals friends, you know that they must be at the center of whatever you are doing. As soon as I had put this square down to take a picture, there was Merlin, one of my three cats. This was taken in April of last year. I was working with a Bali Handpaints fat-quarter bundle called "Rosehips." Over the following two months, I had gotten to this point...

I pulled it out of the closet and decided that this is one of the next projects I want to complete. Where am I going from here? I don't know!

I tried a new focaccia the other day...

The first topping is always lots of garlic and olive oil. To this, I added broccoli, roasted tomatoes, mozzarella and impastata ricotta, and prosciutto. Yum.

Yesterday, I cut out the pieces for the eleven other Retro Razzle flowers, but I ran out of  fabric. I'll pick up some more when I go to the shop to teach tomorrow night.

Rather typical day...

All of my days have a few things in common:

1. They are all rather hectic. I am usually rushing from one thing to the next.

2. There is never enough time to do what I think needs to be done.

3. They are all filled with struggles.

4. They are all equally filled with giggles and love!

Yesterday was a rather typical day:

Woke up and immediately brushed Mr. Darcy. He can only be approached with a brush and comb when he is semi-incoherent.

Shower and get ready for my day. Class to teach from 1-3 and a party to attend at 6. Taking focaccia and wine to the party. Get the dough started and make coffee.

Go upstairs and square all the blocks for the Amy Butler quilts while I drink my coffee. The quilts are now ready to assemble :) Make sure the children are at their desks finishing all the work they did not complete this week.

Go down and prep the focaccia for second rising. Clean kitchen. Make lunch!

Back upstairs. Prep class material. Go outside to get the snow off my car. Realize it is not snow...it is ice. Get off what I can. Back inside. Put focaccia in the oven, and ask Lydia to take it out in a 1/2 hour. I need to leave....running late. Can't get the car out. My kind neighbor helps :) Teach class. While at Cloth and Bobbin, pick up backing and batting for the next quilts, then go to Whole Foods and finally pick up wine. Go home and make dinner for the family. Go to the party....

Oh!! and almost get killed sliding on a patch of ice into Eagle Road....deep breath. Immediately call Abby and tell her to be extremely careful on her way to dance at the Wings game in Philly.

Come home and work on the ribbon quilt while the children watch an episode of Legend of the Seeker on Netflix. Hold Abby while she cries because the music skipped 15 seconds during the performance, and it messed up everyone on the dance team. A disaster for her! Have a cup of Night Night tea....collapse.