As many of my regular readers know, we recently suffered a house fire and lost everything we owned.

The tragedy wasn’t so much about the loss of ’stuff’ but the effect of uproar on our family. Material possessions, after all, can be replaced, but the effect of watching your home, your safety zone, go up in smoke at 2:30 am will never leave a person.

Our small country community jumped right into action. People came with clothes, money, hugs and prayers. Offers of a place to stay, for as long as we needed and until we decided what to do next rolled in.

After living in many towns and cities around the world, I’ve never felt so safe and so loved, within a small community of people. My dreams of one day leaving northern Ontario vanished almost as quickly as the old house and I realized that ‘home’ just isn’t your four walls, it is really all about the place you build memories - and memories are built of people and not just places.

Back on track here…a few of the gifts from women in our community were home made quilts. Patchwork and log cabin and tied and crazy quilts. Quilts that had been created with care, with love, with time, sewn into every stitch.

How nice it is to curl up under a blanket on a wintery evening. Nicer still to wrap a hand made quilt around yourself that was crafted by women who have their own stories of love, sadness, loss, and joys to tell.

I’d never thought much on quilts before, so I decided to do a little research into the subject, learn a few techniques from the local quilting club and women, and start my own quilt making project. I’ll be posting articles about quilting next so be sure to visit again soon or use the search box at right to find all my info on this wonderful country craft.

For the last two years I have been cooking breakfast for pre-teens before school on Wednesdays. It’s not much of a volunteer outreach but it helps kids who feel forgotten a little and since there are over 200 children at this school it has allowed me to meet and interact with so many of them. It’s nice to send them off to class after a good breakfast with a reciprocal smile. Many of them say ‘thank you’ but I usually feel like I’m the one who should be thanking them! It’s a pleasure to be a part of their day.

This is all part of the food for learning program (not sure if that’s the exact name) in Ontario Canada.

Lately however I’ve been feeling ‘called’ to the local high school. I understand there are many teens there who can’t read past a grade 2 level. Since reading and writing are so near and dear to me, it distresses me that any of us (parents, teachers, as well as the community at large) could allow children to get to Grades 9 and up without having the ability to read and write!

I’m not sure what’s involved in teaching teens to read. Perhaps it’s nothing more than just spending time listening to them practice reading, but I’m going to switch my focus from food to books next year.

These kids are the future of our countries. It serves us well to serve them now. I do wish I’d learned that earlier in life when I had more time and energy.