“In the quiet rhythm of the needle and thread, find the stillness of the present moment.” – Corrie ten Boom
So much anxiety. I could feel it creeping into my heart each day leading up to the holidays this past year. My desire to make memories with my family was constantly overshadowed by the expectations I felt from comparing my life to what I saw others doing on social media. I felt less than, weighed down by unrealistic desires to do and be everything to everyone around me. After Christmas and New Years’, I was completely exhausted. It was a special holiday season, and yet I wondered if I missed something between all the cookie decorating, gift giving, and celebrations. Did I make enough time to be present with my family – and with myself? What did it look like to cultivate stillness and how could I do this better?
After much reading and prayer, I did what I thought might help. I stepped back from the online world. I downsized my time on social media and committed to a temporary breakup from the ‘gram until I could accomplish one of my life’s goals: to learn how to quilt, and to make a quilt myself. I wanted to build in more discipline in my life, and chase after a life-long dream.
In the days and weeks that followed, I focused any bit of free time to watch sewing tutorials. I borrowed countless books from the library. I dusted off the sewing machine that my husband lovingly bought me a few years ago. I involved my kids in the process and asked them to sit with me and tell me their stories while I cut piece after piece of fabric and stitched them together, little by little. They got to watch their mom work hard and cheered me on each step of the way.
My social media fast lasted three months and during that time I developed the ability to focus on accomplishing my goal. Block by block, my patchwork quilt started to come together. I began looking forward to any chance I got to sew, to watch the colors and designs come together.
I cultivated stillness.
And in time, this stillness created so much calm in my spirit.
I finished my quilt, and together my family and I celebrated. My husband hung the quilt proudly in our living room. As we look at it each day, sprawled on the couch reading together or talking story as a family, it’s a reminder to me of how God showed up in my life. How in pursuing quilting as a form of discipline and delayed gratification, I found pockets of peace and stillness that I had been craving. Like the patches of my quilt, I’m a work in progress.
—
Essay I wrote published in “Maui Family Magazine,” August 2025 Issue
Little Maui Family 