There's a maxim floating around the internet these days that goes something like this: "If you do not find joy in the snow, you will have less joy but the same amount of snow."
One of the take-aways from that wisdom is it message to those of us who don’t ski jump or go ice fishing. We live with the challenge of finding some way to find joy at a time of year we’re tempted to stay home, look out the window, and hope the “January freeze” is nature’s promise that we will soon find joy in warmer and warmer and warmer …………… and, so on. Joy will arrive -- if not real soon.
But for some of our neighbors, joy is a far reach. For many, snow and cold are simply seasonal barriers complicating their lives. Joy is just that mulch more difficult to find.
So Hats for the Homeless has always been about more than just bringing the gift of physical warmth. We’ve always carried the feeling of giving the warmth of our hearts. This is the essence of reaching out to those who struggle to find their place in the community – simply to bring them hats both for their heads and their hearts. To let them know their community holds them in the warmth of love and regard.
And this is about our finding a joy in “the snow”. It is about the joy we feel in seeing hats go on heads and, more importantly, smiles appear on faces.
The 2021-22 Hats for the Homeless project has distributed over 4,200 hats this year. As before, we bring hats to shelters, group homes, hospital ERs, schools, churches, food shelves, drop-in centers, just to name the more common recipient sites. In addition to hats, scarves and mittens, we received 25 pairs of warm and wooly socks.
Thank you to all the generous knitters for your “gifts of warmth”. Keep the needles clicking. We still have a few more weeks of winter.
For patterns and more details, check out the blog: www.hats4thehomeless.blogspot.com
Best wishes for the upcoming year, Barbara Melom
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