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I learned to crochet as an impatient pre-teen with time on my hands. Diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease, I was confined to bed for 8 months. During that eight months my mother and her friends introduced me to just about every craft ever imagined. I learned to knit and crochet among all the other things, and when the health crisis was over, I laid down the crafts and began to rebuild my strength through swimming.

High school led to college, and college to a career and a spouse, and a great life together. Then came the day when she was diagnosed with cancer. It was like stepping off the curb just as you saw a 18-wheeler coming to mow you down, with no place to go! Then came chemo, and surgery for her. There have been good days and there have be hard days and long days in the chem infusion center, but I have enjoyed every day being together and fully present for one another. It's been three years now. We go out occasionally, but she has very little energy. It's best when we can just sit.

Somewhere along the line, soon after her first hospitalization, I picked up a crochet hook and a ball of yarn. It all came back very quickly. People in waiting rooms would say to me "I haven't the patience for things like that." My response is always, "I haven't the patience either, that's why I crochet."

Crochet is a great stress reliever because it gives me something useful to do during long waits, or quiet evenings at home. It's repetitive and it requires focus, but not so much focus as to inhibit good conversation, or attentiveness to a movie as well. I can be contented for hours with a pooch by my side, my crochet in hand, and my love in the recliner reading or watching a movie, or napping. It is all good!

Mostly I crochet sweaters for the Guidepost sweater project. They collect hand made sweaters and send them to needy children around the world at the rate of about 400,000 per year. There are also organization like "Warm up America," and "project Linus" that accept afghans and blankets for those in need. I feel good about the things I make.

Crochet was gone from my life for many years. It served me well as a child, and it has served me well as an adult. I'm certain it will serve me well in retirement as well. It is an opportunity to do something enjoyable, useful, challenging, creative, and time consuming when there is time to consume, but it does not make any demands. I laid it down for years and when the time was right it was still there for me. Thank God for yarn and hooks!

Learn more about this author, Susan Kliebenstein.
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