A Year of Gratitude – February 21, 2024

It might seem odd to find my gratitude in a pile of fabric, but I did today. As my daughter and I were working together, I felt a wave of gratitude wash over me. I’m so fortunate to spend my days working alongside her.

We spent hours today organizing our supply of fabric. We talked as we worked. We discovered a few scraps from trips taken to fabric shops and thrift shops years ago.

We sorted. We folded and organized. We laughed and the time flew while we worked. It wasn’t really like work at all.

One of our projects was assembling these fabrics for a special request. These fabrics will become an Easter basket for a new grandchild. It’s such a special project to work on.

There’s something purely happy and special about working on this sort of basket together. I can’t help but be filled with happiness and hope working with my daughter on something that will be used by a family to celebrate wonderful moments.  I hope that the basket we make will be a part of making memories for years to come.

My daughter and I will back at work on these fabrics tomorrow. Each fabric strip will be torn by hand. Then we’ll combine them together, making sure that the combination has just the right amount of each one.

From there, each strip will be wrapped by hand around a length of cotton cording. The cording gives it structure and helps the basket to be sturdy and durable. Each strip will be joined together by hand, using the pressure of the wrapping to hold them together. No glue, no stitching, just the twist of wrapping the fabric around the cord to keep it all together.

It’s something that she and I have done together hundreds of times, thousands by now. Yet each one seems new because they are all handmade. They’re unique just like the people who bring them into their lives and welcome them into their homes.

I found my gratitude in a pile of fabric this morning. It stayed with me all day long. I’ll meet it again in the morning when we get back to working with these bright and colorful fabrics.

There’s joy to be found in creativity, in working to make something with your hands, in sharing it with the world. I found that today and shared it with my daughter. I’m so grateful that I did.

I hope that you found joy and gratitude today and that the day landed gently.

This post is part of our A Year of Gratitude Series. You can find the introduction, inspiration, and entire year’s gratitude’s posts here.