Small Gestures of Appreciation

"Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary."
Margaret Cousins

My grandmother was a kind and gentle person, who spent her life in service to her family and her God. Even though she gave much and was given little in return, I believe she was the person who taught me most about appreciation. She had a gift of observing nature (the passing of the seasons, the changes in weather, the warmth of sun rays) and mentioning each mundane occurrence or force of nature as being something of wonder. As the years pass, I find that wonder of hers for the coming of the day and quiet pleasures of a long autumn evening.

There’s a Hole in my Mitten

My mother’s mother started knitting mittens for the Christmas church bazaars in the summertime. We’d see her constantly with her four knitting needles and a variety of different colours of wool in her hands.

She knitted endless pairs of mittens for the church community, as well as a pair for each of her grandchildren. The mittens were truly beautiful, as only things can be made with skill, love, and endless patience.

It was possible to identify the mittens my grandmother knitted among everyone else’s, because of the fine stitching and a small hole she made at the base of the thumb. Another girl at school wore a pair of her mittens; even though grandma’s church was three towns away.

I told her my grandmother made them and her face lit up. She said that her mother went every year to buy grandma’s mittens for her and her siblings. Her mother had to get to the church early because my grandma’s mittens sold out the quickest.