For the Christian community, the next 40 days leading up to Easter are a sacred time- I time to reflect, grow, and recommit to God and spiritual practice. For me, Lent is a time not of deprivation, but of random joy. I choose to interpret Lent as a season in which I can spread kindness and the essence of “Christian values” by the things that I DO. And if you know me, crafting is what I do. So why not combine the two?
Little tags and envelopes I’m sending out as RAK’s- Random Acts of Kindness.
So, I thought I’d share some of my Lenten craft ideas and practices… maybe you’ll get inspired. Most of these are Random Acts of Creative Kindness-(RAKs or RACKs)Â just little things I make and send out to the unsuspecting. My hope is that the unexpected act of beauty will brighten someones day!
Random Acts of Creative Kindness:
- Create little notes to slip to your kids, spouse, parents, friends. Tell them that they are beautiful, special, LOVED. Yes, you say it, but having it in writing is special. (See my post about Camp Cards to see what I mean.)
- Make up a batch of cookies or candies, add a little tag that says, “Because you’re sweet” and pass them out to crossing guards, lunch ladies, school custodians, bus drivers, postal workers, what ever…you know, those folks to improve our quality of life but we don’t usually take the time to say thank you.
- Are you a cardmaker? Make cards to give away. Nursing homes and after-school programs regularly need cards for residents/participants to give to loved ones for special occasions.
- Knitter? Make a hat. Or two. Or twelve. Somewhere near you, a chemo unit or a NICU (neo-natal) unit needs caps to keep those heads warm.
- And in that vein…. use up your odds-and-ends of yarn to make striped scarves. Donate them to a men’s shelter, homeless shelter, group home, or even your closest school.
- Are you blessed with abundance? Donate supplies. Nursing homes, hospitals, daycares (if the products are non-toxic) and even art therapists need art/craft supplies to make the lives of their clients richer. I bet you have something to spare.
- Use up your fabric stash making lap quilts and baby quilts. Seniors in wheelchairs love pockets in theirs, too.
- Make jewelry? Make 10 pairs of earrings, and sell them to your friends, family, co-workers for $10 each. Donate the proceeds to the charity of your choice.
- Each one teach one. Share your skill! Teach someone to knit, crochet, embroider, sew a straight line, or master a wrapped loop. Trust me, someone out there would benefit greatly from the skills you take for granted. And moreover, someone would love the kind, nurturing attention that instruction brings.
- Create little plushies or pillows and give them to the Red Cross or to the Child Life Department of your local hospital. Often, in times of catastrophe, kids lose their stuffed animals, blankets and “lovies.” It’s a small way to comfort someone who might have lost everything. In my own experience, my daughter (then 2) had to be rushed to the ER for stitches. To calm her, they gave her a little pillow to hold and squeeze when she felt scared or in pain. She’s 7 now, and STILL has that pillow. It made all the difference.
So, there’s my list. I know you all have good ideas to share too. Please, won’t you take a minute to leave your ideas in the comments section?
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Jenny what a lovely and thoughtful ideas those are. Another idea is for making cards and delivering them to nursing homes and/or hospitals for them to pass out ot patients. When my Mother was in a nursing home I realized that there are so many people in these places that never have anyone to visit them, send cards or mail to them, etc. I learned that just taking a moment to give them a hug, listen to them when they want someone to talk to or sit with them while they eat their meal means so much to these people. Some of these nursing homes have entertainment for their patients…games, arts and crafts,music, etc. Just a donation of your time to take someone to one of these programs that are offered to the residents means so much to them but be sure to ask the nursing supervisor for permission before doing so. I arranged to take an elderly lady to a music event. The nurses made sure they had her fed and dressed and they brought her down to the area where the music was to be played. I sat beside her holding her hand and took her back to her nurses when the program was finished…the smiles I got from her were priceless. Sorry Jenny for being so lengthy with this post…just so much to share concerning this as nursing homes is one of the top things on my list of priorities.
Art and spirituality is a favorite theme for me…what a great post for Lent! My usual outreach is keeping in touch with chemo patients…peace to you…and I’m happy to have discovered you…from the Beautiful Impressions, Westbrook, CT site…
Thank you for these ideas. I don’t celebrate Lent, but we can all use more kindness to and from each other.
Another way to do good while crafting is to buy supplies from nonprofits like Bead for Life (www.beadforlife.org) which helps Ugandan women to support their families by learning to make and sell paper beads. The beads are gorgeous — you can see them in a necklace I made, combining them with stone beads:
(link removed, as it was to retail site)