Tomorrow is my birthday. They seem to come ‘round more quickly nowadays. Quite the opposite of this beautiful hap I’m knitting.

A “hap” is a Scottish term for a square shawl. It can also be rectangular but it typically begins in the center and is worked round by round (even though it is a square!😃) until the desired width is achieved or until your yarn runs out.

In so many ways I wish that the journey around and back to the marker (a birthday) would take longer with each passing year. More time to watch my kids become the beautiful human beings they are. More time to be with my parents. More time to create lovely things. More time to knit.

In other ways I would not want it so. Aging brings more challenges both personally and for family and friends. I would not wish to elongate the endurance required for these difficulties. Perhaps it is a mercy that I perceive time to be speeding up as I age.

Perhaps it is I who must slow down to really soak it all in.

Perhaps I do well to marvel and coo over each knitted stitch, though it is an automatic thing my hands can do without looking, without even thinking.

Perhaps this Hap is reminding me, with every lengthening round, to sink into its midlife plodding and to recount the beautiful days of spinning each of these yarns. To remember spinning the colors on the back deck in spring, enjoying the textures as dinner simmers on the stove, gazing at the fibers as they whirl into an organized line even when life feels far from organized.

Perhaps tomorrow, as I mark 55 years, I will sit and knit one round, recounting the laughter of my family, the dear friendships in my life, and the God-given mercies I experience daily.

Perhaps a Hap is a truly good thing to knit.💖

***I am knitting the Picnic on the Path Hap, a gorgeous design by Patricia Fortune.