The Web of Life
The bus arrived at 5pm with our special guests. Twenty-eight women picked up in the inner city and area and brought to our doors at the Star, transported by the limousine of buses, donated by our neighbor, Connelly-McKinley funeral homes. Every year for the past fourteen years, Star of the North has sponsored a Women’s Wellness weekend for inner city women. This past weekend of April 20-22, was a memorable privilege of journeying with them and a team of about eight facilitators.
Leading women to their private rooms equipped with hand lotions, bath products and goodies can be a moving gift. One younger woman I led to an upper bedroom, gasped when she walked in the room. I perceived her overwhelming joy at having a space so clean and graced with the adorning rose in the vase and the goodie bags. She did come down to join us for the start of the weekend, but slipped away before we finished our circle sharing to get the full benefit of a room all to her self.
Our weekend began with storytelling to introduce our theme and awaken us all to self-awareness and God’s presence in our lives. “What flows through your web; what gets stuck in your web?”, asked facilitator Wesdyne Otto. And so began the journey leading these women forth from spirit to spirit, embraced by the Great Spirit amongst us all. Co-facilitator Joanne Gagnon led them in meditations to calm anxieties and center them in for a weekend of healing, growth and fun. Wesdyne invited them to the main creative task for the weekend: creating a web on a willow hoop that expressed the web of their life. Friday was also a time for the women to choose two workshops each from six workshops offered Saturday: one of three in the morning and afternoon.
Saturday morning, we gathered together in hearth to reconnect before breaking out to group workshops. In the course, of re-introducing ourselves, one woman tells the group she has only arrived this morning. She brought her daughter to these retreats over the course of several years. She breaks into grief sharing how her daughter passed suddenly last year. We sit in a huge circle and the circle of women becomes a circle of compassion, holding her grief in an embrace. Two women sitting next to her each reach over with the available arm to comfort and embrace. The flow of introduction continues, with an awareness of healing grace washing over all of us.
The workshops are a time for creativity and carrying the theme to deeper levels. I led an afternoon workshop on weaving God’s eyes and hand-knitting. I alluded to how when the yarn gets tangled or the yarn is too tightly woven onto our fingers, it’s just like life. To create well we all need to relax into patience and trust the process and trust the Creator for good outcomes. We all left the workshop with a small reminder of the gift of our hands; of our creative abilities. Workshops on mandala’s, dying silk scarfs, yoga, and other hands on creativity occupied their Saturday morning and afternoon.
Saturday evening was a time for ritual story-telling on overcoming and dealing with adversity. We went deeper with the theme here as well. I was inspired to write a prayer to begin our reflections:
Creator God, You bundle us in communities of life, love and laughter. Wash away our sorrows and griefs with your rains and our tears; teach us to overcome adversity with creativity and joy.
Creator God, you wrap us in warm and cold winds, soft and harsh rays of light, the changing seasons. Unfurl us into new growth and new life, and bless us with grace to heal and grow new life around us.
Creator God, you weave us into relationship with people, places, waters, gardens, wild, natural spaces, skies, stars and planets far and near. Teach us the meaning of oneness with “all our relations”. Free us from the webs that bind us and set us free to weave a sacred blanket of relationship with all things.
A few stories followed and the women shared in pairs their wisdom ways of overcoming adversity and holding on to hope. After our ritual prayer gathering, some went on to work on their webs, most others gathered to watch the inspirational movie, “Because of Winn Dixie”.
Sunday morning, we gathered in the circle one last time. Each woman shared their web and their web’s name. We all witnessed the marvelous wisdom, strength and caring flowing from one woman’s sharing to the next. Lunch was a time for luxuriating in conversation and company, new friends and a real community of caring. There was no inkling of impatient waiting to leave, but rather a lingering sense of fullness and gratitude, and if this is true for the participants, it is a hundredfold for facilitators, organizers and workshop leaders alike. We had a truly blessed weekend together. The Creator’s Spirit shone through from beginning to end.
By Lucie Leduc – Provincial Associate
