Promise me you’ll always remember: you’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.

— A. A. Milne

“One day when he was out walking, he came to an open place in the middle of the forest, and in the middle of this place was a large oak-tree, and, from the top of the tree, there came a loud buzzing-noise.”

With these words, A. A. Milne takes generations of readers by the hand into the Hundred Acre Woods where there are questions, trials, and crises. Ever present, though, sometimes lurking in the most inauspicious places, is friendship, devotion, and discovery. Don’t you sometimes feel just like Pooh, or Eeyore, or Roo? 

Sitting at Milne’s feet, then, we learn as much about ourselves as we do about his beloved characters. We learn what not to do when faced with our own loud buzzing noise:

“You never can tell with bees.” He thought for a moment and said: “I shall try to look like a small black cloud. That will deceive them.”

And we learn how valuable true friendship is.

That’s the story that best fits our encounter. Boy meets girl or girl falls for boy is just too sappy. When we met, we were battered but not beaten, bent but not broken, bruised but not bested. Then we found what real relationship was all about. We found the place where we could share without fear and belong without disappearing. The place where we could , like Piglet, “wake up in the morning” and say, “‘I wonder what’s going to happen exciting to-day?’”

Decades later, we’re still exploring those woods. Not long ago, around a bend in the road, we found opportunity, and a yarn shop was born. 

Time was that most days you would find Deborah with a pair of knitting needles in her hands or close by as she jotted down notes for a new pattern, experimented with stitch combinations, and passed the time with a comfortable hobby. Nowadays, she has a new purpose for those pastimes, and, most days, you’ll find her sitting in the shop, happy to talk yarn, give knitting advice, and introduce others to her favorite dyers. If you look closely at just the right time, you might even find Eric in the corner with a pair of needles demonstrating what real yarn husbands are like.

So, stop in and let’s talk! You may just make a new friend, because, as we all well know, “A day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside.”