Written piece
A thread between us
Mosa Nts'oeu
Lesotho
About this piece
A short story about a young child who learns from their grandmother that kindness and love can unite people from different tribes, cultures and nations just like pieces of quilt stitched together by one thread.
A thread between us
"One should love all people across nations and never show partiality towards tribes," my grandmother used to say as she stitched old pieces of cloth into blankets during winter.
As a child, I never understood why she combined different colours and patterns together. Some pieces were bright while others faded and torn. However when she finished sewing, every patch belonged.
Few years later, I began to understand her lesson. Our world is much like my grandmother's quilt. We come from different countries, traditions, languages and cultures. Some carry joyful stories while others carry pain and sadness. Even so, we are connected by a single thread- humanity.
One winter afternoon, our neighbour, a woman from another tribe, lost her home in a storm. Since she was different, many people turned away. But my grandmother opened our door without hesitation and she began sharing food, blankets and acts of kindness.
That night, as I watched the two women of different tribes sewing together beside the fire. I realized love does not ask where someone comes from, it simply reaches out.
Today I still carry my grandmother's words with me like a needle and a thread. Although the world is often divided by borders and beliefs, kindness continues to stitch people together.
Pieces by piece, story by story, generation after generation, we keep sewing the same quilt . A quilt made of compassion, unity and hope but not of fabric.