Isn’t it funny how life is full of twists and turns.

Like knitted cables, or front post treble crochets, experience winds around circumstance to create the rich fabric of our life.

A little while ago I was faced with a difficult choice. It was a matter of integrity, of ethics and honour. It would have been easy to let it lie and maintain the status quo, but instead I chose to stand up and face the truth.

Around the same time, I received some news. Events swirled around me like a hurricane of emotions, betrayal, honour, sabotage, isolation, failure, fear, desperation.  I clutched to the walls around me, reaching for stability, for something tangible, for hope.  I retreated into myself, and spent three days in bed without the will to live.

It wasn’t until I removed myself, and re-connected with the wild women within, by immersing myself again in my natural rhythms and channelling the earth in her sacred spaces, that I remembered.

I remembered who I was, where I wanted to go, and how I wanted to get there. Almost instantly, I was recharged. Re-invigorated. Energised.

Throughout my journey as a woman, and then as a mother, I have sought and maintained circles of women friends. Weaving in and out again through geographic change and economic flux, but still I have always sought the company of amazing women. 

These sisters have sheltered me, nurtured me, encouraged me and at the same time learned from me, been emboldened by me and felt supported by me.  Each exchange has almost always  been accompanied by fibre, either through the act of knitting, crochet, hand stitching, felting or more recently spinning.

It is these connections, other than those of my immediate family, that sustain me, that give me life and purpose and will.

I want to give that connection to others. I want to give that soul-warming, life-affirming, belly-laughing connection of a sisterhood united in handcrafts to others. 

So my path is veering. Veering from where I thought I was headed, off into a darker wood, a path untravelled, a future unseen. But my steps are light. They are rooted, yet floating, and my centre has become light and I am starting to glow again.

I know that whatever path I choose I will be supported by the women in my circle. 

I look forward to where my steps take me. I am sharing in the hope that others who may be feeling the pull of darkness will see that sometimes in connecting to the earth and our natural world we can find illumination, and take steps out into the light.

May your path be filled with light, and your way be true and your heart be bright.