A quilt hangs in my living room—made by a trio of my dad’s aunts. “The great aunts,” we called them, meaning both “great” by being sister to our grandmother, and “great” by being marvelous and even, somehow “cool.”
Each had separate lives and stories, but when I was a child and teenager, they were back living together again in a small two-bedroom home with a curious attic and preserve/ vegetable-filled halfbasement. In their living room were three rockers of different heights and a couple of small “settees” for company. A favorite childhood memory is the three of them gently taking turns getting up from the living room to serve coffee, answer the phone, take a neighbor a plate of cookies, or start dinner preparations. There was a simple harmony about their life, and it spoke volumes. Their living style instructed in words they never spoke: “Notice when your taking the turn can make life better for others. Notice when the coffee needs to be turned up, or down, or served. Notice when the neighbor arrives home. Notice when the next part of dinner can be started.”
By each of their rockers was a basket of cloth scraps; no uniform basket style or uniform spot on the floor. No uniform preference for quilt piece size or method of hand-sewing. Each formed their version of “This is how quilting works the best for me. This is how to cut pieces. My favorite fabric is worn-out shirts or tablecloths or wool dresses. The best pattern for me is the flower-basket or postage-stamp, or wedding ring.”
When any of them sat down, their hands automatically slipped over to their quilt-piece basket and began to thread a needle (or on other days, pick up knitting needles or crochet hook). When another aunt walked through, she’d comment, “Oh, you’ve made fine progress. Oh, those colors fit well. Oh, the size of those pieces will give you many choices of design.”
Thinking back, I remember the accord of goodwill that filled the house as nicely as the quilting pieces.
We’d hear their different life stories, hear differing versions of family occasions and differing views of what happened in the community. One would remind my generation, “Now dear, be sure to take your shoes off at the door; it helps the home stay welcoming.” Another, “Oh, now dear, there is no need to take your shoes off when you come in, this is home.”
Raised in an era when we think folks were often trained to be the same, they were individuals. Political views differed, and while all happened to be Lutheran Christians, their understanding of religion and faith varied. One sent more money overseas, one taught more Sunday school, one baked meals and delivered them twice a week to the prisoners in the city jail. One more often sat reading her Bible, one the daily newspaper, one current novels and classic writings. And sometimes, they’d work on a quilt together, as on the one hanging in my living room.
My great aunts weren’t merely “being polite.” They felt that none of them held more of the answers than the others. In the New Testament of the Bible, we can read, as they did: Just as each of us has various parts in one body, and the parts do not all have the same function: in the same way, all of us, though there are so many of us, make up one body in Christ, and as different parts we are all joined to one another. Then since the gifts that we have differ according to the grace that was given to each of us… give generously from the heart.” (Romans 12)
Do you have a version of great aunts in your life? What would they see in the quilt pieces of your life? Would they see in how you live with others an individuality that lets others also be individual? Would they see thinking that lets others think differently, preferences that let others prefer differently? Would they see the accord of goodwill filling your house and community in a quilting-together pattern? Look at a quilt one day soon, see how it fits together, beautifying what it surrounds. And thank God for those who make us quilts, who teach us.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This week our contributor is Pastor Kris Garey of Trinity Lutheran, Hovland.
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