This journey started two years ago with a very persistent thought about "domains." Why would I be thinking about domains, what does that mean? Domains...computers...websites...umhhhh?! We realized that by setting up a domain we could establish emails that would point to a future vision for our ministry and eventually we could develop a website. At the same time we had both been touched by a meditation in Mark Nepo's, The Book of Awakening, (Dec. 3rd, Hospitality, pg. 397), "At heart, hospitality is a helping across a threshold." Nepo goes on to give examples of how we can help others to have the courage to journey across the various thresholds of their lives but that we can't cross for them. He concludes this meditation with these words,
"This speaks to one of our deepest callings of love--that special hospitality for the injured, the strong action of compassion that makes it possible for those in pain to heal themselves. It calls mysteriously and arduously for the clearing of confusion and the comfort of what is real. It is the way that we who have suffered can take our turn, lifting the head of whoever has fallen, bracing their exhausted neck to drink, knowing we can never drink for them."
Bit by bit we have gained clarity and been drawn to the work of helping people to cross the various thresholds in their lives. The pieces all started to come together and a move to Sisters provided the place. We are currently in the process of gaining a county use permit, applying for non-profit status and attending to all the details in order to launch Threshold Journey. We invite your prayers of support!
We have dedicated a small quilt that Christy pieced and Jack quilted to Threshold Journey. It was created in a class taught by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston and is based on the Red Sticks pattern in their book, Freddy and Gwen Collaborate Again.
To us this quilt represents the feeling one gets when you feel "lost" in life and don't know which way to turn. It is about the journey of finding our own paths and having the courage to cross the various thresholds in our lives. The inspiration for the machine quilting came from the poem Lost, by David Waggoner. The person stands in the middle of the forest and yet is not lost. They simply, "Stand still. The forest knows where you are. You must let it find you." We present this quilt for the first time at the November Inspirations Small Quilt Show at Quilt Works, Bend, Oregon in honor of, Threshold Journey, a safe place that exists to help people transform the pain in their lives and have the courage to be found.
Lost
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
-David Waggoner