Difficult but Stronger
The threads of weaving diverse perspectives
A quick note from Mexico, where I’ve been co-teaching for the past week.
Yesterday during our closing circle I did a weird thing that I do… I started knitting.
Knitting is a way for me to integrate experiences. I love weaving the energy of events and people into tangible form. There is something both soothing and clarifying about using my hands to connect mind and heart.
Our retreat here in Mexico was with 4 very different main facilitators, 70+ participants, and lots of what we can call trickster energy. Half way through the program there was a challenge so big I wasn’t sure how we were going to be able to continue.
And yet.
Magic happened. Miracles blossomed. Epic healings. Incredible ceremony. Life-changing teachings.
We just needed to stay the course, with love.
As I was knitting I found myself struggling with the yarn I’m using. It is gorgeous yarn, hand-dyed in Scotland. I bought it last year from a tiny knitting shop in Edinburgh.
The casting on process is how you get the yarn from a ball onto the needles to start a project. Each time I tried to complete the first stitch I couldn’t seem to get the needle to go through the yarn and onto the other needle.
I paused and realized: since this was natural spun wool it was comprised of three different strands of yarn, which kept separating as I tried to knit. I had to move much more slowly and deliberately to create each stitch. Whenever I tried to hurry or just keep moving without capturing all of the yarn with the needle the first row did not come together evenly.
Ah, so like life!
I’ve been doing a very specific journey to Teotihuacan, Mexico for many moons now, based on how it was passed down to me from my mentor don Miguel Ruiz. It has become familiar and in a way effortless, even though it is energetically intense.
For this year’s summer solstice journey to Mexico I was excited to teach with other people I deeply respect. And yet: add in other people and it was challenging to bring together the different threads of lineages, perspectives, and personalities.
We had to slow down. To listen to each other. To make sure the stitch was true and not splitting us.
It made me think of the beautiful African proverb:
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
In so many instances in our life it is easier to just do things on our own, or to always do what is familiar.
And yet: sometimes it is a gift to actually make our lives more complicated. To add in more strands. To slow down so we can capture all the perspectives. To face the crisis and chaos together, learning how to trust. Learning how to repair when their are ruptures. Learning how to love each other even when it is hard.
When we bring in more diverse perspectives and experiences, we stretch ourselves beyond what we know. We see other ways of being. We learn to listen without judgment for what resonates and what doesn’t. We put aside being right in favor of being together.
And with more threads, the fabric we weave is stronger. More resilient. And also more beautiful.
So today I give thanks for complicated knitting, of cloth and of humans. I give thanks for rupture and repair. I give thanks for the beauty of working together, slowly, to stitch together a new world.
Please share in the comments below an experience where you found strength through weaving different threads, with ease or struggle. Blessings!
It is hard to say accurately how much I love you. Also in what way, sort of mentor/sister. I guess the most accurate is that you are one of my guiding stars.
In my Sedona retreat where we had a fairly difficult hike and I found myself weaving my newly discovered gift and the teachings on tapping into our warrior goddess energy to help myself and everyone complete the hike without a hitch, humming a melody that evolved intuitively as time passed.