The Most Valuable Gifts

Today was a lovely and productive day. 

I sewed a yoga mat bag for Alicia using leftover fabric from another project

I cooked soup and put it in jars for lunches

I made a gift bag from the scraps of fabric I had left

 I baked buns

 I made chicken diablo for supper. Sorry no pic of this one, it's long gone!

I crocheted

 and I read fiction

All in all, one of my favourite kind of days.

And as I sat on the couch tonight, just hanging out, I found myself reflecting on all the people who made my day possible. All the people who gifted me, not by giving me things, but by teaching me their crafts and passions. I found myself remembering all the days that I watched my mom sewing in the afternoon, coffee cup beside her sewing machine while we played in the basement. I used to dip graham crackers in her coffee and she would find half of them soggy in the bottom of her cup. Sorry mom. 

I found myself remembering all the crucial lessons I learned from my friend and sewing instructor Dawn. Carefully placing my pin cushion and my small scissors on the right hand side of my machine to ensure that my project would never get cut by accident, and my pins would never end up on the floor, not to mention all the other vital information she taught me about selvages and pressing in order to create items that look handmade, rather than homemade.

I chopped vegetables and remembered my mom and my grandma loading soup pots with vegetables and broths to create healthy and savoury meals, and of course using up random leftovers in the process!

I remembered all the years watching my mom and grandma's hands fashioning buns using a completely indescribable technique which I am so proud to have mastered. They always told me it would just take practice and they were right! And nothing gives me a greater sense of pride than seeing the buns come out of the oven golden brown with tiny freckles on top, my grandma's sign of a good bun. I so wish I could invite her over for buns, coffee and ssockastekja (sugar cubes).

I remembered the joy I felt when Alicia taught me to crochet for the first time in my dorm room at CMU. I spent hours bent over the saddest looking scarf ever with hopeless tension issues. But when I finally felt confident enough I bought some of my own yarn and crocheted late into the night trying to make her a scarf without her knowing. Being a crochet newbie, I decided to be different and made my scarf going back and forth lengthwise  and completely misjudged how long the chain needed to be. Longest scarf in HISTORY! And she wore it for years. :)

And though I don't remember who actually taught me how to read, I am endlessly grateful for every person who read to me, taught me hooked on phonics, and placed books in my hands. I am grateful to my parents who read me the same books over and over and over again. I am grateful to Ms. Neufeld my grade 1 teacher who must have played a significant role since I remember our reading groups and the Serendipity books we used to read. And I am incredibly grateful to Ms. Lois Braun, my grade 5 teacher who took the time each day after lunch to read us novels aloud (using voices), and who encouraged us to do group book studies, and to write our own books. I read every single day of my life and have incredible memories of all the lands I've visited and lives I've lived vicariously through an endless stream of characters over the past 3+ decades. 

So today was a fun day of creating and remembering. And I hope in my life I will be able to notice the opportunities before me to teach and nurture such life-giving activities for others because gifts that empower are truly the most valuable gifts we can offer.