Recently while I was looking for something else, I found a pile of cloth face masks in many colors.
I started sewing them by hand 5 years ago during all those early-Covid-era Zoom meetings when I desperately needed something to do with my hands to keep my anxiety down. Actual medical grade masks were nowhere to be found and we were supposed to be rationing them for medical workers anyway, but Joann Fabrics had plenty of scrap fabric and elastic. Once I got the hang of it, it was pretty easy. So I kept making them, because we kept having Zoom meetings and I kept having anxiety. After awhile my anxiety eased and I moved back to more complicated crafts like cross stitch—also by then I was moving into a position of leading more Zoom meetings, so I had to set the crafts aside for that.
I don’t know how helpful these masks actually were when I ventured out to the store or on socially distanced outdoor visits. I didn’t get Covid until summer of 2022, which probably means the cloth mask effectiveness was above zero percent. I think their real benefit, though, was that they gave me something to do which was at least somewhat helpful, occupied my hands, and distracted the anxious parts of my brain.
Over and over our scriptures tell us not to be anxious because God is with us, but I don’t think there’s any shame in needing some help with that in a time of fear and anxiety. Help like, say, finding something productive to do with our hands. I don’t know, maybe those old cloth masks might make a nice quilt.
–Rev. Toby