Making Dolls & Learning Life

Yesterday I wrapped six heads of hair. 

No, I'm not a hair stylist.  Every other Tuesday afternoon, I help make dolls at our church's Sewing Circle.  My job involves wrapping yarn around a post of pegs and preparing it to be sewn together and onto the head of the dolls.  The completed dolls (minus the faces which are added by the children who receive them) are sent to a local children's hospital.  They're distributed amongst the young patients for medical play, a way to help familiarize and comfort the children by using the dolls to explain the procedures that will be performed on the children.

I began going to Sewing Circle for two reasons - to be of help and to learn a little.  Well, I do have a small part in the help and I've learned more than just a little.  More so about life than anything else.  You see, most of the ladies of the small group are several decades older than I am.  As I listen to them talk, I've learned about what it's like to grow older physically, to be a widow, to have grandchildren and great-grandchildren, to have grown up in a very different day and age.  I'm catching wisdom and storing up knowledge for the future - and by listening to them, it's made me more sensitive to the struggles of those a good bit older than me.  Besides all that, those ladies make me laugh!  I love how they tease one another and banter back and forth.  And, most of all, I love how they've accepted me into their little group. 

I sure get far more than I bargained for every other Tuesday afternoon.