Patchwork Promises: On being kept and keeping.

I once was asked to speak to a women's group at our church about peace. I talked about my grandmother, who loved to quilt and did what she called piece work. I said she also was known for her peace work, making patchwork quilts. She was the grandmother whose table around which our family still gathers. I wrote about that table in one of my first blog entries. Grandma Terrell fed us teacakes and garden vegetables but she also fed us the nourishment of love and peace that came from her deep faith. She covered us in her feather bed with quilts she had pieced from scraps of worn out clothing or pieces left over from making a new dress, but she also covered us with grace. She taught me the joy of being kept. She taught me the value in keeping.

Now I am the grandmother. Last week I had the special blessing of keeping my two youngest granddaughters for a few days while their parents traveled. We pulled out a quilt to place on the family room floor. 2 year old Maddie and I added a card table and coverings to make a play house, and had our lunch there. 5 month old Jordann practiced her rolling overs and carefully examined the new colors and patterns in the old quilt pieces. As I watched her, I realized the little daisy and strawberry print she was fingering was cut from a scrap of cloth that made a sundress I had worn when I myself was a very little girl. I felt a leap to and from the past. Mine, my mother's, this special grandmother who had sewn the quilt. I felt tears that must have made my eyes shine almost as brightly as Jordann's, and I laughed with Maddie as we pretended.