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As I rummaged around the office, I came across a colorful crocheted granny square that was left over from a project that was coordinated on my blog two years ago. I sat down and cried. Don't worry, they were tears of joy ... I was remembering the hundreds of people with hearts full of love who helped me realize a dream.
Those people have been one of the biggest blessing in my life.
I decided to share a story I had written during that project, to show you the power of people working together. Here you go:
He glanced at me over the top of his newspaper and nodded solemnly, as he always did. I saw him every day as I sashayed into the coffee shop to get my morning mocha. Usually, the only greeting I got from him was that casual nod, but this morning he threw his paper down on the table and looked me in the eye.
"I don't know what this world is coming to," he sighed, shaking his shaggy gray head. "Crime, war, destruction. The world is full of hate! I'm beginning to think the human race is just plain evil."
"You think so?" I asked. "Then, come out to my car with me and let me show you what the newspapers don't tell you."
I bounced out to my Honda Element while he followed with a puzzled expression on his face. Having just been to the post office, I had quite a few packages such as these. As he stood beside me I opened the back hatch, borrowed his pocketknife and opened those parcels for him to see.
I ripped open a box from Arizona and a large envelope from Hawaii. Out of them tumbled a rainbow of beautiful crocheted granny squares. Each of the squares had a tiny tag attached, telling the name of the person who made it and where they lived.
"What's this?" he asked skeptically.
"This," I said, "is love."
I told him about the Share A Square project.
In June 2007, I woke up one morning with a wild idea. That day, I posted on my blog asking for help with a project, saying that I was "searching for people with big hearts." I requested that people send me six-inch granny squares to make into afghans for children with cancer. I planned that each blanket would have 48 squares on it, and each square would be from a different person.
I knew just where to deliver them. There is a summer camp for children with cancer and their siblings called Camp Sanguinity (associated with Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas). Each year, 140 children attend. For six glorious days, those children can forget about cancer and just be kids. I planned that we would wrap all of those children with blankets full of our love.
I had no idea if I would be able to make this work; in fact, I suspected that I might be biting off more than I could chew. But, I remembered words my Daddy told me: "Gal, if you don't ever chase a dream, you're never going to catch one. Dream big, and then run like thunder."
Though I was not one to listen to my Daddy when I was young, as I get older his words seem to make more sense. Since this piece of advice seemed to reinforce what I already wanted to do, I decided to take it. To my surprise, before the day was out at least 15 other blogs had linked to mine. People jumped at the chance to help me spread the news. We decided to call the project "Share A Square."
Soon after that, people began sending me squares. I packaged them and sent them to other volunteers. Those folks rimmed the squares in black stitching, pieced the blankets together, and then crocheted a colorful border around the blankets before they sent them back to me. On the day I chatted with that man, we had more than 100 blankets finished, and I
