wool love

"For centuries in Ireland, women hand knit sweaters for their seafaring husbands. The bulky, cable-stitched wool was constructed to ward off harsh elements. Each woman used a recognizable, family-specific pattern of stitches, both to reflect love and pride, but also to be used as a means of identification if the husband were lost at sea and his body washed ashore." 

    I have no idea why this concept captured my heart as greatly as it did. Of course the image is an easy one to fall into - an Irish woman sitting in a cobblestone house upon a grassy hill as she looks out the window across the sea she sews by hand every stitch of the sweater that the love of her life will wear, the love of her life that has been taken by another love. As she sews she sews for a man who loves her unconditionally, who protects and provides for her, who made a commitment through vows to her. And yet with a heart filled with love she sews to a man who has chosen a path of betrayal, a man who left her to fend for herself. Because although the fisherman loves his wife, his heart belongs to the sea. 

    But it is the concept that captured me. The idea of a woman marking her love with a design, a symbol so that everyone would know who he belonged to. The concept that she was going to go through stitch by stitch to make sure he was protected from the forces of nature. To think that a fabric could resist the ware of the water is ridiculous, but because there was so much time, energy, love, passion placed into those stitches that sweater will indeed protect from the winds.

     We all need this sweater. Whether it is provided by a lover, or our mother, or another; we all long to have this symbol of "I belong to someone and they have protected and labeled me." This sweater is intrinsic in our lives, in each one of our lives. But ultimately, let's look at reality. Every person that makes you that sweater, it will wear and it will tare and eventually you will break a hole in the chest and be able to feel that bitter winter chill on your very bones. Unless, that shield of protection, that cover of ownership, that length of love was stitched together by God. Only then will that sweater never see a hint of a hole. Only then, when we claim ownership under His protection, will we truly be able to show off our love like a sweater.