Quilts of Compassion

The wind sends fabric into a billowing wave as it hangs from a clothesline in our backyard. Breaths of air seem to start at the bottom and, like an ocean swell, move upward through the cloth until exiting out the top—only to immediately start again. The undulating fabric is destined to become part of a quilt lovingly created by my partner in life, Tarn. She will cut the cloth and piece it together with other colorful fabrics until the resulting patterns coalesce into a work of art.

The quilt she fashions will be offered anonymously to a local helping organization like hospice, a children’s cancer center, a senior center, or any one of many other non-profit groups. This is a service of the “Community Quilts” gathering of quilters dedicated to creating warm gifts of comfort to benefit others. Tarn has probably made at least 30 quilts that found their way to someone who could use a little comforting.

This is good dharma—an auspicious arising of loving kindness. All of the (mostly women) in the community quilts group gather weekly for mutual support, conversation, and to accomplish a few stitches. (They keep each other in stitches? That too.) The group is a kind of quilter’s sangha sending fabric prayers to bless all beings. It is amazing that this organization collectively offers as many as 500 quilts in a year.

In this moment, however, I imagine the waves of fabric drying in the wind now blessing the quilt it becomes and the lap it will warm. I wonder if the wind will be felt by the one who receives the blanket. I’d like to think so, even if only a whisper of love. Many who received theses quilts in the past have shared their experience of joy and comfort when it was most needed and appreciated.

I walked through the hospice house in Bend the other day while visiting a person in the final stage of life. There, in an empty room waiting to support another dying person, draped at the end of the bed, was a quilt I recognized. It was fashioned by someone I know, and now blends seamlessly with the loving care the next person to occupy this bed will receive. There is no label identifying the sewer. It is a testament to the kind of compassion that can be created and offered without need for acknowledgment; Dana Paramita (gracious transcendent generosity).