Praying for Friends

I've spent a lot of time at home the last couple of days both under the weather myself and with a sick little girl.  So I've done a lot of reading, a lot of movie watching and a lot of reflecting.  In both the movies I watched and the books I read, the main theme was friendship, particularly friendship between adult women.  This caused me to do a little reflecting on my life and the women in my life who I am privileged to call my friends.

I really care about my close friends but I'm not always very good at sharing with them how grateful I am for each of them.  I had a very special friend who passed away a few years ago and I waited until she was very sick with cancer before I told her how much she meant to me.  I made her a prayer shawl and wrote her a note telling her all of the special places where I had knit the shawl.....on Madeline Island overlooking the sunset and sunrise over Lake Superior, in our 40 acre woods by a roaring campfire, sitting on the couch in my parents' house, and many other memorable places.

After lots of thought, I decided that I would make prayer shawls for my few very dear friends and I was not going to wait until some dire circumstance came along to do.  Shouldn't we be praying for our friends every day and not just when times are tough?

The book I used to make my friend Winnie's shawl is called The Prayer Shawl Companion by Janet Bristow & Victoria A. Cole-Galo.

This is the shawl pattern I used.

Here are some other patterns that I may use.

I especially like the pocket prayer shawls because that would be something a friend could keep with them all of the time, tucked in a purse or jacket pocket.  So it looks like I will be doing some knitting and some praying over the next couple of weeks!

"Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant."  -Socrates