A Riot of Color

I'm going to India this December for two weeks with four other women. I made a quilt for us to raffle off in a couple of weeks. All the proceeds will help our group pay for travel expenses.

Of all the quilts I've made, this one might be the most meaningful. I thoroughly enjoyed every step of the creative process, which is unusual for me. Generally I thrive on the initial design and then the finished product. The beginning and the end usually drive everything in between. But this quilt was different.

I tend to reflect best when I'm creating something. As I was making this quilt, I spent a lot of time alone thinking about many things. Sufficient to say that my own seasons of personal darkness and despair look very different from this side of the threshold. For the grace to see beyond what I once saw I am deeply grateful. What was once so dark has somehow carved out a space within me for grander things - things I didn't know I was capable of. The ideals I was once so very passionate about now resonate at a new level and have become a reality that I embody and not just something I talk about.

I also thought a lot about India where our group will be participating in a mobile salon in Lucknow, which means that we will get to pamper a group of women who, from what I understand, come from rather oppressive situations. So, lots of hairwashing, pedicures, manicures, etc. Every time I've been overseas in a serving capacity I've never walked away the same. Sometimes I go to sleep at night and see faces of people I've met from all over Asia. They haunt me. They drive me to attempt great things with my life. And they condemn me when I feel myself living for superficial things. God uses them to move me. And I anticipate that India will be no different. I will see things that I will never recover from. And for this I thank God.