The Darning Needles

What did Swamp Walking Woman feed the Darning Needles?

She whistled sharply and called out, “Darn it!” Instantly there appeared a cloud of the Darning Needles who had befriended her many months before. In a fever of activity they set to work sewing the sides of the water against the shores. While they worked the woman stood with one foot planted on the shore of each island, holding each part in its place. Soon the tapestry was finished. She bowed. With her own needle and thread she sewed in a stretch of swamp flowers and grasses that were home to the insects Darning Needles like best. --from Swamp Walking Woman, publication date January 2010.

Darning is an activity of the past. Not that my socks last very well these days, but I don't darn thread back and forth over the holes in the heels as I used to when I was a child. I remember the wooden "egg" on a stick, how it was placed inside the sock and used to hold the form of the toe or heel. If the hole was very large, you had to catch the darning thread in the good cloth and weave back and forth, up and down across the hole, creating a patch of new cloth. The whole activity of darning socks makes sense when you consider that often the socks themselves were home knit and not to be thrown out lightly.

The dragon flies my mother called Darning Needles were small with thin blue and black needle-shaped bodies. They didn't sting or pester us in any way so we came to enjoy watching them skim over the water or buzz among the cattails.

A Word about Knee Injuries

At left, see my left knee doing its work, back on the team.

For those who have injured a knee or had knee surgery.

There are many kinds of knee injuries. All will require therapy when the knee is sufficiently healed.

My fall smacked the left knee hard into the pavement. The joint hyper-extended violently, tearing the tissue to mush. The fall cracked the knee bone, but that was the least of my troubles. My knee said, “Okay, if that’s how you treat me, I don’t want to be your knee anymore.” It refused to bear my weight.

For a month I had to keep the knee immobile so the bone could heal. Then the therapy began. At first I could only bend my knee at a 55 degree angle. The therapist gave me a printout of about ten exercises, which I did faithfully for weeks and months. Here is what I learned.

1) Keep up the exercises until you can grab your ankle and bring your heel to your butt. Don’t stop until you have back full flexibility. (After a while I found that my Iyengar Yoga routine included the therapy.)

2) Get your gait back. A leg injury can make you limp, waddle or walk with short steps as if on ice. Don’t settle for that. Get back to the confident walk you had before your injury. Walk a lot. Get back to any and every activity you loved before your injury. For me, that August hike, six months after I fell, was the triumph that said, My knee is back on the team and I’m back among the able!

3) Regular Chiropractic adjustments speed the healing by keeping open the nerve channels to the injured area.

Swamp Walking Woman

Here's what the book looks like. And here's an excerpt:

Reluctantly, but with renewed energy, they said goodbye to the land and walked forward into the muddy swamp. For a time the only sound was the swish of the woman’s skirt against the water. Then all around began the croaking of frogs. Glug-a-glug. Glug-a-glug. Glug-a-glug. Alert, Futura looked with round eyes wherever she heard a glug. As they passed by, the frogs stopped croaking and jumped into the water. All except one, who stayed on a partially submerged lily pad and stared at them crossly. One of his legs was wound round with fishing line.

“He’s caught!” said Futura.

Swamp Walking Woman put Futura down. The girl got her footing on the muddy bottom and approached the frog, who sat at the height of her chest. The lily pad and the frog’s leg were twisted together.

“Frog, don’t be afraid. I will help you.”

She gently untwisted the line.

Freed, he splashed into the water and rose to the surface. “My name is Shout. If ever you are in trouble, call my name and I will come.”

“Good-bye, Shout,” said Futura as the frog disappeared beneath the water.

“Well done,” said Swamp Walking Woman.

“Now I have a friend,” said Futura.

“Yes.”

Responses to Swamp Walking Woman

I like [the] character Swamp Walking Woman and the generosity of the renewal that happens among the community. This reminds me of the "medicine tales" of Clarissa Pinkola Estes, as well as the mountain folk tales I grew up with. LB

[Patricia Lapidus is] truly a gifted story teller, and I’m honored to have been among the first readers of Swamp Walking Woman. HL

Patricia has written a story of gentleness and strength in an uncertain place full of fantasy and love. Her characters are eager, opening to nature as a bud opens to a full flower. –Arlene S. Bice, author of Life & Labyrinth

Publication of Swamp Walking Woman to be announced here in January.

What Would Swamp Walking Woman Have Done?

What would Swamp Walking Woman have done with The Farm's Laundry? Since she is a larger than life figure like Paul Bunyan, she would probably have diverted a river right through the laundromat. And since Swamp Walking Woman had many helpers as in ancient fairy tales, a flock of birds would have appeared to hang the clothes in the trees for drying.

Swamp Walking Woman is a tall tale, a modern myth, and a fairy tale. Coming out soon.

For updates on Sweet Potato Suppers, go to http://hippiesincommunity.wordpress.com/

Meanwhile, I spent my weekend with family, including grandkids. With my son and grandson, I visited the land that was once The New York Farm. Watch for pictures.

Sweet Potato Suppers

Watch for the re-publication of Sweet Potato Suppers coming out this fall. Among many treasures you'll find a glossary of hippie speak. Stay tuned.

Simple Web Tech for Writers

For a free copy of Simple Web Tech for Writers, please send your email to patricialapidus@sbcglobal.net. Write free tech in the subject line.

Good Review of Red Hen's Daughters

A writer I respect read my book of poems Red Hen's Daughters and was so impressed he couldn't talk about anything else! When he puts some comments in writing, I'll post them.