I am the Weaver.
In many cultures around the globe, the goddess of creation is a weaver. The Navajos, for example, say that Grandmother Spider wove the world into being; the ancient Egyptians honored Neith who wove the swaddling clothes for the beginning of life and the shrouds for the end of it; and Ix Chel wove the first cloth for the Mayans.
What is a weaver? A weaver is someone who forms fabric, like the fabric of life, by interlacing threads in two directions. A weaver is also someone who makes facts, ideas, etc. into a story or connected whole. I do both of these activities and more...
Take the threads of your life and weave them into a fabric, a connected whole, that is strong and beautiful!
Though I started out perceiving myself as a weaver of yarns and later, a weaver of words, I finally came to understand that I am also a weaver of experiences, relationships, community, and life. You are too!
And you already have the tools you need to weave with clarity, confidence, and joy. I can show you how to use those tools - your dreams, your creativity, rituals, and others - to their best advantage.
Becoming an accomplished Weaver involved time, commitment, and imagination.
I have been working with thread and fabric since I was old enough to thread a needle, and I have been writing and dreaming even longer. But the desire to learn weaving must have been implanted as a young teenager when I watched the Disney movie The Three Lives of Thomasina. In it, fey-looking Susan Hampshire plays the role of a young woman who lives alone in a cottage in the woods. The children think she is a witch because of the thumping noises they hear coming from her cottage. In fact, the thumping they hear is the beat of the reed against the fabric as the young woman sits weaving at the loom surrounded by the animals she helps to heal.
Weaving is magical. To take threads that seem so fragile and create fabric that is strong and beautiful enough to warm, comfort, celebrate, and decorate is magic. This magic gave me a career I could pursue at home while raising my three sons. With this magic, I could weave a shawl in my studio near Albany, NY and have it warm the shoulders of a woman in Guatemala.
And through the act of weaving, I understood my life in a new way, because when I sit down at my loom, I enter mythic space and time. Throwing the shuttle back and forth, I hear Athena, Grandmother Spider, and the women weavers of thousands of years past whisper to me the secrets of life along with the secrets of weaving. I learn the lessons of the spirit - at my loom.
I share the lessons I have learned in my book Weaving a Woman's Life: Spiritual lessons from the Loom (link) and I offer coaching and workshops to help others weave a rich, colorful, strong, and beautiful life fabric.
Credentials:
- Master of Fine Arts in Weaving and Creative Writing.
- 15 years as Professional Weaver exhibiting at fine crafts shows and selling to Galleries, Designers, and Private Customers around the world.
- Professional writer. Contributing editor to Crafts Business Magazine. Book reviewer for Foreword Magazine, and Broadsheet.
- Workshop and seminar leader for groups on topics of creativity, dreams, and writing.
- Speaker Host Co-captain at the Maui Writers' Conference since 2003.
- Member of eWomen Network, International Women's Writing Guild, Creativity Coaches Association.
My favorites...
Spending time with my husband... really dark chocolate... working in our gardens... reading a good book... baking a luscious chocolate dessert... crème brûlée... a good fantasy novel... a good mystery... champagne... fresh picked raspberries... music by David Arkenstone... doing dream work with friends... being on retreat with my writing friends... having friends for dinner... being by the ocean... watching a sunset... my father's daylilies... watching my sons laugh... spending time with my husband.
