Fire and Ice...

It is SO ironic that as I am putting the finishing touches on the first of my elemental dragons... Fire... and have been looking at ways to use these charts to help others around the world, that a disaster should hit so close to home. Late Monday afternoon, one of my fellow “bus stop moms” came home to find her parents herding her boys out of the house as flames began to burst from the roof line. Somehow something smoldered in their chimney and, despite the fire department coming once to check the house, burst into flames later in the day. Most of the upper floor and attic are totally destroyed, and there is quite a bit of water damage elsewhere. Since all 5 of them moved in with her brother’s family, whose home is even closer to ours than hers, many of us took up food, spare clothing etc. What else can you do when tragedy hits but respond as a community? Isn’t this what I hope my neighbours would do for me if something happened at our house?

Today, the temperatures have plunged into Wind Chill warnings and bitter cold. I don’t think that I have had warm hands or toes since I first crawled out of bed. Tomorrow is supposed to be even more bitterly cold, but after that... I hope things warm up a bit for a photo shoot... If not, I will be finding a studio space to rent or hiring a professional to shoot the Runekeeper model..

I’ve enjoyed the feedback from stitchers about how to best use the Elemental Dragons for charity purposes. I really feel the need to somehow encourage people to not only enjoy what they are stitching, but also think about how they could also help others in tiny ways. Imagine that each one of us helping one another is like one more tiny X added to a design that makes the world a better place instead of an X that has to be “frogged” (Rip-it,-Rip-it).

Since so many stitchers outside North America pointed out how hard it is to find truly International organizations (like the Red Cross), I think I have come up with a solution that works for me. When each elemental dragon is posted, I will put a list of ideas for places to donate on the website... but then let each stitchers decide for themselves. I’m not going to try to “force” people to be generous. I also know that there will be some stitchers who choose not to donate anything to any cause, but I think that will be better than making it a chart which can only be obtained with a contribution. Somehow that will make the chart even more tempting to those who continue to abuse copyrights and share or post patterns illegally. I’m working on the wording that will appear on the chart itself, but I think there will be room in there to put down some ideas of causes.

I can remember looking at a campfire this summer and thinking just how beautiful and terrible Fire can be.... that something to bring warmth, cook food, act as a beacon in the darkness (that scene in Return of the King where the beacon fires were being lit game me goosebumps!!) and much more can also destroy...