This piece started as a baby quilt. I wanted to make something infused with meaning, color and fun. A tall order. The cross cut of a tree sparked an idea, but as I pondered what to say to someone beginning their life, it took a serious turn. Too serious for a baby quilt.

My life is more than half over, and I wanted to tell this new one that life would probably not work out as planned, but that it’s okay. It took me a long time to figure this out, so he is better off knowing it up front. When something did not work out the way I hoped, it always felt like failure.

As I pieced the rings in the tree growth, I saw how imperfections add beauty and interest. A tree adjusts to lightning strikes, wind storms, being hit by a car. So my romance that failed, the perfect family that never happened, setbacks in my career, loss of people I love, bad decisions, circumstances not in my favor, somehow add beauty to my life. And I can celebrate that I persevered when I didn't think I could. I adjusted and grew back again and again.

“He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.” (Psalm 1) God decides what it means to not wither but to prosper. Maybe we wither and then come back stronger. Maybe we prosper in ways we didn’t expect or even think possible.

Life is not a fairy tale. It is often scary and hard. But as I look back I can celebrate the beauty I see. For this new life I know there is beauty to come.

And He Shall Be