Category Archives: Poverty

Little Punkins

Posted on January 22, 2017 by Mary Jo Doig

Although I’ve been making quilt squares in my spare time during the past year, on the winter evenings when dark arrives early, my perennial urge to knit returns once again. This inner prompting reminds me of the Catskill Mountain days in late winter … Continue reading →

Posted in Community, Gifts, Grace, Gratitude, Living Mindfully, Peacefulness, Poverty, Simplicity | 3 Comments

Homelessness: One Man’s Story

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Mary Jo Doig

In recent months, I’ve been deeply moved by a Story Circle Network blogging friend’s writing as she courageously brings forward her son’s long-term homelessness in California’s Bay Area. Margie Witt has written several compelling articles about her son’s journey from … Continue reading →

Posted in Community, Compassion, Courage, Family, Mental Illness, Poverty | 1 Comment

Carol’s Coats

Posted on January 12, 2016 by Mary Jo Doig

Carol Tyree. We worked together for over a decade. We retired together on the last work day of 2011. She was more deeply devoted to her family and her church than anyone I had known. And we shared several seasons … Continue reading →

Posted in Childhood, Compassion, Friendship, Gifts, Gratitude, Kindness, Knitting, Poverty | 2 Comments

Sad News from the Breakfast Club

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Mary Jo Doig

Originally posted on 20 Minutes a Day:
Some of you may recall that I wrote a few months back about an eighty-five year old woman – one of our Breakfast Club patrons – who I discovered was living in a West…

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A Modest Proposal

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Mary Jo Doig

With deference to Jonathan Swift for borrowing his book title, I have long thought about this proposal for every politician in America. The proposal would not go to the house or senate for a vote; it would go to our … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, Courage, Poverty | 6 Comments

I Can’t Breathe

Posted on December 6, 2014 by Mary Jo Doig

I grew up on the east end of Long Island, near the Hamptons, in a lower middle class family of five. When I started school, more than half my classmates were “colored,” as we called them in the 50s. They … Continue reading →

Posted in Childhood, Family, Kindness, Poverty | 4 Comments

A Fascinating Story: The Quilters of Gee’s Bend, Alabama

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Mary Jo Doig

When I was raising my children in the small, rural Catskill mountain town of Bovina Center, New York, I discovered the art of quilting had never died there. It was always an active, vibrant, and visceral part of the secluded … Continue reading →

Posted in Bovina Stories, Change, Poverty, Quilts, Simplicity | 9 Comments

Exactly Where I Need to Be…

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Mary Jo Doig

– I sit on the couch in front of my woodstove this morning, warmed and peace-filled by its gentle flames and emanating heat, and reflect that this holiday brings the perfect backdrop theme of re-birth to my life this day. … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal friends, Compassion, Gifts, Gratitude, Health, Kindness, Poverty | Leave a comment

Silent Gifts

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Mary Jo Doig

“Everybody’s forgotten about us down here,” the chunky young man said to me, his brown eyes sad. “I didn’t want to hurt my back working in the coal mines and wind up disabled with no insurance.” We sat in the … Continue reading →