I imagine many of you are feeling the same way that I am feeling now. The weight of all the world is very intense. Climate change, millions of refugees all around the world, endangered species, and now Ukraine, are all weighing heavily on our hearts and souls. Because we are working to help those in need, and speaking out to fight eco-system collapse, I have to keep going. But tonight as I drove home I wept in the car. This week we topped $1.9 million raised for non-profits in the last 23 years, but it is bittersweet. There is so much more to do. We thank you for supporting our family-owned business, which allows us to help those in need, and protect the Earth.
Today was also the 1 year anniversary of the mass shooting at the King Soopers grocery store here in Boulder. Some days it feels like too much, but just like you, I get up and keep going. I practice Daily Gratitude and meditation which helps me to stay centered in the moment. Quilting is certainly part of that grounding and centering. I make art and do something creative every day. It keeps me sane in these troubled times.
Today I had lunch with 2 of our humanitarian friends – the founder of Engineers Without Borders, and a retired administrator for Doctors Without Borders. One of them had just come back from a refugee camp on the border of Mexico, full of desperate Haitian refugee families. These 2 have decades of experience and stories to tell about those who have fled violence, natural disasters, and famine…in Asia, Africa and Central America. I have witnessed extreme poverty and shanty towns on 4 continents as well, so we have some pretty intense conversations. I have this kind of relationship also with Kathy Price at Mission of Love, who is shipping food, medical supplies and your donated quilts to Ukrainian refugees now.
However we are part of an international network of people who don’t look away. I have been blessed to meet many of these people who spend their life in humble service, and they continue to energize and inspire me. They give me hope for the future. They are always looking for ways to help others. One of them recently had surgery and he is already out there volunteering to help those who lost their homes in the fires. And I know that many of you are part of that network as well. When you stand up to donate money, time, and quilts to those who have lost everything, you are part of that Global Network of Love.
Tonight Sophie and I finally got to see Hamilton in Denver. How many years have we been trying to get tickets? I don’t know. I’ve lost track. We did see the live recording of the original cast when it came out from Disney in 2020. But we always wanted to see the live show. We’ve watched the film several times with subtitles so we actually can follow what is happening in the rapid-fire historic rap. (That’s how I learned to understand Shakespeare by the way – I watched several Shakespeare films with subtitles until I learned to comprehend the Shakespearean language.) Anyway, if you’ve seen the live show or the film, you know that it is quite intense and emotional. The message that we only have so much time in this life, to make a difference, to help others, to positively affect the future….was not lost on us.
Sophie Quinn (now a sophomore Music Ed major at CU Boulder) was at the String Teachers conference in Atlanta Georgia last week, and she was bubbling over with excitement being there – kind of like when we all meet up at the quilt festival. A few years ago she was complaining that there were so many ‘Sophies’ in her classes, so I suggested that she could go by the Americanized version of her Chinese middle name, so you might see her on social media as Quinn Rubin these days. But she says that our family, and our quilter friends can still call her Sophie. She was named after my great-grandmother who immigrated from Sweden in the 1800s. But the poetic name she was given in the orphanage as an infant, means “Musical Heart” so her new nickname has deep meaning as well. It is good to have options!
Praying for Peace,
Luana and Paul
