Have you ever made a quilt? I haven’t. I’ve been “working on” one for about eight years… but, ya know, I don’t think that counts. I have seen quilts though and I think they are really beautiful. Even the ones that aren’t quite my personal style, I love. There is something magical about taking scraps of fabric and putting it together to create something new. What is quite obvious when you look at a well-crafted quilt, is that these scraps are anything but. They are essential pieces to a great tapestry. Beginning my own quilt project, I chose my material and then cut it all up into the pieces I needed. If anyone were to walk in, they would have seen chaos. Mismatched fabric. Small pieces everywhere. A clueless “quilter.” I was moving pieces here to there and back again, until I figured out what looked right, what flowed, and what created the masterpiece. (OK, maybe I’m giving myself too much credit by calling it a masterpiece. But work with me here.)
Last night’s episode of This Is Us brought that tapestry to mind. The interweaving of life. All the mismatched pieces and ragged edges. The chaos. The movement of here to there to back again. The imperfection of life’s circumstances and choices turning producing a masterpiece.
*** Spoiler Alert ***
Though the title of this episode is “The Right Thing to Do,” I walked away with the last scene being the most poignant. In a flashback, Jack and Rebecca struggle to figure out how to make life work with triplets. They are short on cash and emotional strength. Ladies, how many of you adore Jack? Because he’s just…he’s so great and I love him more and more. Jack pulls through, by facing his father – probably one of the hardest things he’d ever done up to that point in his life, and asks for money. With that money, selling his cherished car, and scraping it all together, he buys the house that their family will live in.
To me, there is a distinct difference between a house and a home. A house is a building. It’s often referred to a place where people live. A home, however, is about relationships. It’s where we hold our deepest emotions for those in our family. It wasn’t until Rebecca visualized their future family in that her fear faded, she smiled, and with pure joy hugged Jack and said, “We have a home.” That house, the shell, transformed into something more. It was a home where memories would be created and love would abound. The structure became a safe place for the growing Pearson family.
I love how during this episode, we saw a deeper love between Toby and Kate. They don’t have the house yet, but they have a strong sense of home between them. We also felt a greater sense of home with William, Randall, and Randall’s entire family.
I believe it’s home that we all strive for in life and I love how This Is Us illustrates how we can create home with what we perceive are scraps in our life.
What did you think of this week’s episode? Let us know!
