6 years since the spindle and I met
6 years of laying my heart onto the warp
6 years of offering reverence into the weft.
I honour my Maiden Weaver
and all of the threaded
blood that I've offered to the Loom.
I am becoming a Mother
and I look always to the Earth
and her creatures
my steadfast and trustworthy Teachers.
Hawthorn and Lichen
Bear
Wolf
Rose
Heron
Buzzard
Deer
Ocean
Have all offered wisdom
and insight
into the qualities I wish to bring into
my time as Mother.
Teachings that I wish to weave into Motherhood
and my time as a woman within this spiralling web.
I believe that if we remain open to witnessing the abundant wisdom mirrored in all life forms
the road to living harmonious existences
and raising our young in reverence
and respect for the 7 generations to come
is ever more achievable
and possible.
Each of the woven pieces in this Becoming Mother collection
has been made to honour and acknowledge
the journey of pregancy
in all of its earthly glory
and mystery.
A journey that is vital, holy, normal.
A journey that deserves and requires recognition
in order to promote the respect neccessary to recalibrate our connection to Earth
to Life.
Within the last 8 months
my body has swollen
widened
opened.
My breasts have darkened
My hair is fuller
My cheeks more rosy.
I now wait with the promise of life giving Milk
primorial elixir.
Life has shown me itself in an unwritten language
as my womb has opened to allow new limbs
and a tiny heart
to grow.
This Becoming-Mother
is at its core
a homage to the undeniable miracle of Life.
This breath
This body
all of us-
birthed through the vessel of a Woman
back to the first Mother.
I am in awe of the Divine
and feel within me the unyielding beauty held within all existence.
These weavings are devoted to All Mothers
of all species
seen and unseen
unfathomably small
and large
whose bodies swell
and crack
and open
spiralling forth with blood and sweat and mud and water
to release the promise of continuation
the renewal of Hope.
These weavings honour the fertile palms of the land
the gift of holding and birthing life
and will cocoon their wearers in the promise to revere
the Mother in all.
// and around you I will weave a cloak of safety
A cloth to hold your tender bones
A cloth to Mother you
Oh Mother in becoming.
Let the land hold you now.
Let these fibres embrace you
warm you
tend to you
so that you may in turn nurture
warm
and tend.
Let the intimacy of fabric become your family.
And so it is, and so it will be//
