Follow-up to WATERmeditation, Monday January 12, 2026
“The Nature of Buttons” with Virginia Day
WATER thanks Virginia Day for her creative and insightful meditation on buttons. The video of the session can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYGCXn-tFeM along with these notes.
Mary E. Hunt’s Introduction to Virginia Day
Virginia Day describes herself as a nurse, chaplain, and spiritual director. She was involved in nursing education and administration during her career. Likewise, her chaplaincy experience includes work in hospice settings, a very particular, very delicate form of ministry. I can only imagine, from earlier presentations here and from conversations, that she was especially suited to the special work of accompanying the dying. Now, as a spiritual director, I affirm how lucky those who work with her are to benefit from her wisdom, kindness, and insights. So, too, we at WATER are such beneficiaries of her wisdom, kindness, and insights. Thank you, Virginia.
Virginia will offer what she calls “brief insight and guide for our reflection regarding the practicality, usefulness, matching and mismatching of buttons as a symbol of the ending of one year and the beginning of the new year.”
Virginia’s Input
Thank you, Mary and the WATER community for the invitation to open our New Year with a few words to inspire your quiet time this evening. And given the start of this New Year, there has not been a more needed time “to come aside and rest awhile.”
On this, only the second Monday of 2026, images of Venezuela, Iran, Minneapolis, Portland, the Ukraine, Syria, Gaza, and so many other places fill our screens and our ears.
As I prepared over the past week, I asked myself the question: How can we balance these heavy and real concerns in our meditation together while silly and familiar expressions associated with buttons come to mind? For example, you may wonder about the choice of the topic and even recited in your mind certain phrases like “cute as a button,” “button your lip,” “he or she buttonholed me in the elevator,” or think of a colleague as “not having all one’s buttons” (you might even think that about the presenter!).
I offer a little history of tonight’s choice of topics. Several years ago, I received a card, the cover of which you are viewing, that featured real buttons in three D, colorfully arranged in various sizes and shapes. I was immediately drawn to the colors and uniqueness of something so ordinary and necessary. I thought to myself: “I can use this someday.” Thus the origin of the theme for tonight: The Nature of Buttons.
Like a teacher or homilist, I will summarize the themes or points of this brief introduction that might be helpful for your quiet time.
Point #1 Pay attention to what draws you.
Little did I know, after several years and multiple moves, that the image of the multicolored card and symbolism would find its use this night.
I have a glass button jar like one you may have used to catch fire flies. May I suggest that you imaginatively go through your jar, desk, or bureau drawer seeking the loose and mismatched buttons – buttons, too, that fit the category of “Maybe, I’ll need it someday.”
Like my jar, yours may contain small cellophane packets of extra buttons that came with a better-quality outfit, suit or coat, knowing that this human being owner is going to lose one of the buttons some day and here is an extra.
Point #2 Buttons come with memories some of which represent joys, losses, fear
There was a button there once…I wore this outfit when… for example: A satin covered tiny button of a wedding dress; a groomsman or prom jacket rented and returned missing a button; a blouse or shirt button from the first day on the job, or maybe the last one; a black or grey dress button worn to a funeral service.
We have not spoken yet, or seen included in our visual display of buttons, samples of brass buttons that may represent authority, and in our present day, generate fear.
( See “Top Brass” about a Connecticut factory making brass buttons since the War of 1812 by Tracey O’Shaughnessy, “Top Brass,” Connecticut Post, December 28, 2025, Section D 1-2, https://www.ctinsider.com/living/article/waterbury-button-factory-brass-ct-21153831.php)
Point #3 Someone, somewhere bent over high or low tech equipment, stitched that button in place.
Perhaps a word of gratitude is in order.
Point #4 Buttons accommodate and command adjustments to be made.
A skirt or trousers might be too tight, too loose, representing weight gain or loss, frailty, each of which demand moving the button. Or, another example of adjustment — a day may come when disabled or aging fingers make buttons impossible and only snaps, zippers, and Velcro will have to do.
What adjustments does this New Year require of me and into the future?
Concluding Remarks
I introduced this New Year’s reflection with the profound concerns of our world. You may ask how is it possible to connect notions about a collection of buttons to the concerns that weigh on our hearts this night?
Sitting here tonight and in the minutes of silence to follow I ask, are we not a collective, are we not unlike the buttons?
Beyond just appearances, buttons and dressing make possible our preparation for the day, how and where we show up for our work, our writing, our serving, our standing on protest lines, our bending down to listen to another.
Just as buttons have to match and fit the button hole, so must our concerns, effort, and work find a match with others of like concern who bring their energy and efforts to the chaotic elements of today.
Point #5 With whom do I choose to gather?
This is an important consideration.
Questions for Reflection:
These points lead us now to a time of reflection. (Following were 22 minutes of silent contemplation.)
Comments by Participants
Appreciative comments by participants were many and varied.
1. One person reflected on the heart-shaped design on the visual. We, she said, like the buttons, are a community of different people joined in love. Her
grandmother showed her how to put a button on many decades ago so the buttons brought that woman to mind/heart.
2. Another person went to her large button box, a fruitcake tin, to put her hands in it as part of her meditation. The textures and designs of the buttons
impressed her. Some buttons have 2 or 4 holes, others have shafts (so the fastening does not show). Their differences are like our differences.
3. Meetings like this feel like an “upper room” experience to one person. We weather these days with groups like this.
4. Still another person spoke of her ministry, including her leadership role and how she needs to pay attention to the people for whom she is responsible pastorally. As a bishop, the button image invited her to make herself conscious of each unique priest in her care. No lonely, lost buttons on her watch.
5. The heart shape of the buttons reminded a person of how hard it is to love someone who is doing evil.
6. A children’s guessing game “Button, button, who’s got the button?” was a refrain one person remembered from her grandmother. Here is a link that explains the game https://thegeniusofplay.org/tgop/genius/play-ideas-tips/play-ideas/button-button.aspx And here’s a vintage song about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=997bZ3xieso .
7. Levi 501 jeans were popular among gay men especially in San Francisco in the generation of early gay rights, AIDS, and the like. The buttons on the fly of these jeans remind one of us of the rich history of which he was a part. He seeks a way to help other people given the knowledge he gleaned at that period of his life.
Gratitude to Virginia Day is enormous. Who will see a button again without thinking of these many and varied reflections?
Announcements
1. Rosemary B. Ganley will lead us on Monday, February 9, 2026, 7:30 PM ET on the theme “The Grace of Endings” to which all are welcome.
2. We need volunteers to lead for our April 13th, May 11th, and June 8th sessions. Please let Mary Hunt (mhunt@hers.com) know if you are inclined to lead.
3. Last month we heard from Cheryl Nichols on “Honoring Our Guiding Lights.” She drew upon the works of Sr. Maria Boulding and Sr. Joan Chittister, saying, “They wrote that in this time of winter darkness we are so much more aware of the stars.” We were all led in various directions in our meditation, with the uniting factor being our search for those lights. You can find the audio and the notes at https://www.waterwomensalliance.org/december-2025-when-darkness-falls-with-cheryl-nichols/.
Thanks to all, especially Virginia Day, from WATER!