In the chapel at our hospice house, where I volunteer one morning a week, there are three little straw baskets. Each hold a simple knitted square measuring about 6 inches squared with three separate designs. A heart, a cross, and the star of David. I’ve never met the ladies who knit these squares. But I have seen people leave holding one. I don’t know who knits them. I only hope that these anonymous knitters realise how comforting it is for a visitor to say a prayer to whoever their God is, and leave with one as a momento of a passing. It’s only a simple piece of knitting. But don’t the simple things tell their own stories? What bought this person to be knitting squares for hospice? Perhaps they lost a loved one there? Why do they knit? Perhaps they are housebound of disabled themselves.
This wonderful quote sums up how those little squares are making difference to lives….
“Knitting may not, on the surface, seem relevant to engines that run the world, but at its essence, it is actually quite vital. For knitting, which can express so many emotions, most often expresses love. And when all else is lost , LOVE is what most often stays with us.” Melanie Falick, Lit. 2002.
Thanking all those knitters who create little squares of love for those who need them. Because LOVE is the real engine that runs the world. Without it, we are all lost.