Quilts

One of the many skills I do not possess is the ability or mindset to make quilts. They require patience and a special brand of precision that have always alluded me. One of the many memories of my mother that I carry with me is her ability to make quilts. She was quite good at it. I can hardly remember a time when she was not working on one either for us or some member of the family. Looking back, I can see where she could have had a very nice side-income for herself if she had chose to sell them. Instead, Mom gave them away. Her generosity was even more impressive than her talent.

Quilts are often the result of a joining together a patchwork of various designs and colors. This array, once put together, is then used to keep people warm and perhaps even give them a sense of safety. Quilts represent collaboration and cooperation and the benefit that comes from them. For the makers of them, they generate pride. For their users, quilts instill comfort. Not bad at all. Further, if well treated, they can last for generations and become part of a family's landscape. In essence, quilts serve as a reminder of the good that can result if one is open to various designs and perspectives and makes the effort to determining how best they can be linked.

Those most proficient at communication can do this, too. Such folks do not see interacting with others who may have opposing views or emotionally-charged perspectives as being roadblocks to achieving consensus or agreement. Rather, they see such diversity as an opportunity to create messages that generate unity. They view differences of opinion as being an important part of the communication process - one that should not automatically be discouraged or ignored. Differences, they recognize, can actually be turned into building blocks that lead to positive advancement. For such communicators, it is a matter of having the will that makers of quilts demonstrate regularly.