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Weaving a Life, and Life Interrupted: A not very brief personal biography

The wheel has turned and it is Autumn. It’s about time I started using this SWW blog feature.

Weaving with friend Jay at a women's campout

We are all weavers.

This is an introductory personal essay about how Sanctuary Without Walls came to be. All my life I have been engaged in discovering ways of living and being that seem most life-affirming, and which make the most sense to me. Life is made up of a spiraling series of chapters, woven together. Sometimes one chapter's color and pattern dominates, while other colors/patterns appear as life unfolds. There has been a world of inspiration (and struggle) during the creation of my personal tapestry.

As a woman, I have naturally turned to the writings of women; as the daughter of scientists, I turned to the social and natural sciences; as someone fascinated with the deeper things, I explored religion and spirituality; as someone deeply in tune with nature since childhood, I sought lessons from the world of plant and animal beings and the cycles of seasons.

Vocationally, I became a mother and then a grandmother, a maker of beautiful things (including literal weaving,) a birther of educational and women's organizations, and a minister in a broad sense of that word. I was weaving together a way of being, a life.

Threads along the way

In 2019 I came across another way to think of weaving: repairing the social fabric. Upon reading about the organization founded by David Brooks, Weave: The Social Fabric Project, I realized that most of my life I've been involved in the sort of "weaving" he writes about. You have most likely also been a weaver, in one way or another.   https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/the-relationalist-manifesto/ While our planetary and national situation is now more dire now then when Brooks wrote this, the weaving metaphor holds.

In the above-referenced manifesto, Brooks writes that this weaving has no name, but is engaged in, and always has been, by people all over the world. It is about interconnections, community, service, interdependence, creativity, and love. Connection run counter to the individualistic culture in which we are immersed.

While living these ideas, I often felt like a stranger in a strange land. I never sought to amass money, or to build a career. Instead I followed my vocations wherever they took me, leading to work in the arts, parenting, education, gardening, ministry, and more. I sought others with similar values, starting women's groups: first consciousness-raising groups in the seventies; then I was a Le Leche League leader when my children were young, education-related groups when they got older, and women's groups when they left home - a Full Moon Circle group, an elderwomen group, and a haven that offered an annual women's campout. I deepened my Earth-centered spiritual understanding through druidry inspired by my Welsh heritage, and attended four seminaries.

Life Interrupted.

Then came the illness and chronic conditions, each rare and incurable.

My 2015 transplant has given me more years, but my "new normal for now" is very different than what was "normal" for me when I was healthy. When people ask if I am "back to normal" - well, not in the sense they are probably imagining. Life is different for me now.  I move more slowly. My heart breaks more easily for others in distress and need, both human and non-human others, including Earth herself. I have left most of my textile work behind, finishing projects I started years ago when I had energy. My current projects are smaller and often weave together materials from nature, recycled/reused materials.

Nevertheless, I have mustered the energy to deeply study our changing climate, revive some spiritual practices connecting me to the land that supports my life, and to undertake training in environmental ethics and eco-spirituality. More weaving.

Sanctuary Without Walls

So here I am, reviving the Sanctuary Without Walls.org website. The times we live in have called me to offering more places of sanctuary. Here is a passage from the Living Earth Community, a site which sheds light on eco-spirituality:

Humans have long sought to understand their deep entanglements with the natural world, evidenced by early Paleolithic paintings on cave walls depicting humans in sacred relationships with local animals and the mysteries beyond. These and other expressions of ecological spirituality (also referred to as spiritual ecology and eco-spirituality) seek to understand our relationships with the sacred in and through the natural world and the larger Universe. These experiences have many expressions emerging outside of or within religious traditions–from the Abrahamic religions to various Indigenous pathways, and from Earth-based spiritualities to transformative encounters with ecological science. Eco-spirituality is often rooted in ancient literature, rituals, and practices that orient humans toward deep connection with the more-than-human world. I heartily recommend this site. https://livingearthcommunity.com/category/ecological-worldviews/ecological-spirituality

The weaving continues. If you have any interest in deepening your connection with the more-than-human world, please join me on October 12 for the circle Spirituality and Nature: Into the Wood. The second meeting of Creating Together, for creative women (isn’t that all of us?), will be held on October 22nd in Canaan, NY. Details may be found at this website, www.sanctuarywithoutwalls.org.

Yours under the trees,

Katharine