Why I Crochet (and Sometimes Knit) For Charity

It may have been the 7 Random Things meme last week, or all of the time I have spent recently on charity projects, but something made me think of this story over the weekend, and I decided that I wanted to share it with all of you.

Several years ago, I had the opportunity to attend my town's annual hospice breakfast. Everyone who is anyone in town attends (including the UPS man, much to my surprise), and I really enjoyed going. At the breakfast, one of the men who works for hospice got up to introduce a new program called "Healing Hearts". By way of introduction, he told a story that has stayed with me over the years and has given me a lot to think about.

He said that as a young man, he had travelled to India to see Mother Teresa. When he had the chance to meet her, he told her that he wanted to move to India and work with her. He felt that was his calling. However, she told him no, that he should go back home. She explained that there was what she called the "Western disease" in America, and that disease was isolation and alienation. We have a lot of things in this country, but we are not always so well connected with each other. So she wanted him to go back home and find a way to combat this "disease".

Years later, his answer was the hospice program "Healing Hearts". This is a program for those who have lost loved ones that have been in hospice care. Once the survivors have gone through their grieving process, Healing Hearts helps them to reconnect with society. If they have a skill, hospice helps them find people who can use their skill. If they would like to learn a skill, hospice has a list of organizations that will teach them. (Question for my readers from my crochet guild - is the crochet guild on this list? If not, we might want to think about adding ourselves.) Anyway, Healing Hearts is all about ending the isolation of those who find themselves alone.

I think that what hits me about this story is that I am trying to do the same thing through my crafting for charity. The people we craft for are often isolated by trauma or grief or age or poverty. So my hope is that my handmade donations help those people to feel just a little bit less alone in the world. Even a lowly afghan square, when joined with other squares, can send a powerful message. Ultimately, I can't right all of the wrongs in our society, but I do what I can to make the world a better place.

So the next time you sit down to make yet another item for charity, remember Mother Teresa and know that you are also helping to fulfill her advice to that man from hospice.