How Random Can Things Be?
Webster’s defines random as: unsystematic, unplanned, haphazard or erratic.
I cannot think of a single person who can survive in this world living in the state of “random.” From the time we draw our first breath, there are medical personnel standing beside our parents and the plan is laid out for our care until we can care for ourselves.
I know that at times my life may have felt random, but currently Dennis and I are driving our own bus and that gives us the best of feeling comfortable. Our life has a good plan, though to some it may seem somewhat overly systematic. That’s okay.
A wonderful quilt top emerged from the depths of soft colors being placed where the heart lead it.
Thinking back there was a time when I was totally overwhelmed by a request of daughter Carrie. Carrie was ready to make her first quilt. She knew the color pallet when she came to St. James to shop at Grandma’s Quilt Emporium. The pattern request was: no specific pattern, just all random.
My Mom quilted. My Grandma Riebe quilted. My Grandma Wendlandt quilted. My Great Grandma Christine Wendlandt quilted. I was privy to all of these seasoned quilters during my childhood and also as a quilter in my own right. For this project there was a wonderful selection of squares, but they were not to be in a nine patch configuration or any other process I could relate to. Somewhere along the visits to St. James the quilt top was deemed finished. I am quite sure it was a give and take on both Carrie’s part as well as mine. It turned out to be a wonderfully cozy, inviting quilt that we tied with a soft blue yarn. Random had been given a run for its money. Looking at the precious photos of the event, I do see a bit of a pattern that emerged.
Rocky, the smart cat that he was, was very
warm and cozy in the depths of the quilt.
Of that sweet project, one thing was not unplanned or erratic. The cat Rocky, that Carrie had left with us a few years earlier, knew just exactly what this project meant for him. It meant for him security, warmth and cuddle time. As the quilt was being tied, Rocky would very quietly be a spectator and soon be as inconspicuous as possible as he buried himself into the depths of Carrie’s quilt. Rocky did not live randomly. See? No one gets by in this life without exercising the innate, instinctual power of taking control for their own survival.