It all started with one fabric heart.
It had been a bad day for my mom. Discouraged and weary, the world felt dark for her. Then she spotted it, laying on the checkout counter at the library. It was a small fabric heart with a label saying to take it.
It was a small thing, but it brought joy to her in a moment she needed it. The heart hung in her room for a few years and the memory stuck with her. She thought about making hearts like the one she had found, but she never made the time.
And then 2020 came.
The lockdown started and we had cashiers at our local grocery store, people we had known for a while, crying on our shoulder because of how poorly they were treated. We watched as people took out their anger on those working menial jobs who had no say in limits, mask mandates, or how much product their store had to sell.
We wanted to do something, and that’s when Mom remembered the heart. We pulled out a heart stencil, scrap fabric, ribbon, batting, and printed off some simple tags that expressed our gratitude for the work someone doing during hard times.
We sat down and we sewed sixty hearts. I come from a big family so it wasn’t hard. Even one of my sisters who didn’t like to sew was able to help make the simple project. We made those hearts and were excited to hand them out. We hoped we hadn’t made to many. I laugh now thinking about our concern.
We gave out the sixty hearts within a couple of weeks. It became a regular evening activity during the lockdown to make those hearts. We found handing a fabric heart to the clerk or waitress showed them in a tangible way they were seen and valued.
It was a simple act of kindness, but one that had a huge impact. We had workers start crying, saying they had been ready to quit because all they got is cussed at day after day. We had people asking us about Jesus, because they saw that we were living out our faith. And we had people come up to us months later to tell us they still had their heart in their pocket or hanging in their car to remind them someone had seen them.
What can you do to make someone feel seen today?
-Anonymous
Instructions on how to make fabric hearts:
Use a stencil or freehand draw a two hearts onto cardboard one slightly smaller then the other. Cut these out
Using the larger heart, cut out two hearts from fabric
Using the smaller heart, cut out one from batting
Print off tags, punch a hole in one end and place on a short piece or ribbon
Place on larger fabric heart face down, then the batting heart, next, the ends of the ribbon in whatever part of the heart you want the tag to hang out, and then put the other large heart on top facing out.
Hand sew together using the blanket stich. Make sure to put a couple extra stiches to hold the ribbon in place
Give the completed heart to anyone you think needs to be reminded they are seen.
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