I like to think of life’s journey as a Tapestry – each one of us makes our own tapestry as we go through our life. What is a tapestry – noun – a piece of cloth whose pattern or picture is created by sewing or weaving different colored threads onto a special type of strong cloth.

Each season creates a new part in our tapestry of life. We are all weavers – weaving our hopes and dreams, joys, cares and sorrows into our tapestry each and every day. Reminds me of Peter Yarrow’s song “Weave me the Sunshine” - “Weave, Weave, Weave me the sunshine, out of the pouring rain. Weave me the hope of a new tomorrow and fill my cup again.”

Why do we humans need all of these celebrations (or have their cups filled – so to speak) that I mentioned above? Why is it so important to hear the stories from each season, to rejoice or prepare for what the weather will bring us, to wonder whether there is a God or not, or to look into the innocent eyes of a baby with all the promise of tomorrow at their fingertips and then to look into the beautiful eyes of our elders with all the wisdom of the ages there to share with us?

Humans all over the world need celebrations to remind them of the glory of their life and of this amazing journey we are on. Even people that are living in the middle of a war, or hunger and poverty, find some strength not only from those that come to help relieve them of some of their pain, but hope within themselves and in their families and friends around them. The human spirit – no matter when a person lived or where a person lives or what circumstances have been placed before them – somewhere, the human spirit still finds beauty and joy and strength from each other and from their own spirit, their own quest for knowledge and love and understanding.

Life – I can talk about life – because, well I am among the living! I wonder about life all the time: you know why am I alive? Why is there life? How did it start? Why does it end? Well, those are the questions that we ask all our lives. We explore reasons, we study what poets and scholars have written, we write our own ideas, we create stories of mystery to explain things we don’t understand, and each day while we’re living we just keep weaving it all together into our own tapestry.

What does your tapestry look like? I like to envision all the colors of the rainbow in mine – but not just rainbow colors – I also see blacks and grays and pastels and sometimes just some beige – all those colors woven through and through. The colors representing the silliest times, the joyous times, the passionate times, the worried, sad, frightened times. The times of great wisdom, and learning, the times I’ve had playing and singing, the times I’ve fought with others, the times I’ve been loved and loved, the times I’ve been angry and hated and, oh, the times I’ve felt like I was floating on air. The size of your imaginary tapestry will grow each day – ‘cause it will include all the events and feelings and people and happenings of your life.

Our tapestries change as we change as well. I have a friend who claims that she sees auras around people – or actually sees colors around a person. There was a very sad woman we both knew, who was going through a miserable time in her life. There were grave problems with her children and in her marriage, and she was the president of the hospital where we worked – so at the same time she was at the top of her professional game and as you can imagine stressed beyond what one human being should have to endure. My friend Marylou said that the woman’s aura was sadly very dark but that there was a small sense of grayish/white around the edges (perhaps a symbol that this woman did have hope for renewal and a possible end to much of her despair in sight. – I asked Marylou about mine (I was a little afraid of the answer) but she told me my aura was a mixture of aqua and rose (kind of like the cotton candy you can find at a fair). Wow – I’m just a big ball of cotton candy – all happy and cheery. . . Yikes, I’ve fooled even the aura lady! But Marylou did say that auras can change depending on what is happening in a person’s life.

And so it is with our personal life tapestries – different colors and pictures and feelings weaving in and out every day. I’d like to think my aura is always like cotton candy but I know it isn’t. I have had my very sad and dark days. I also sometimes have dark days when I sit and worry about the pain and sorrow of people throughout the world – some I know and some I don’t know. But I also experience great joy when I see each of you and we manage to look at each other and smile. I might feel gloomy on days when I feel sick but then my dark aura or threads in my tapestry change to cotton candy when I call my grandsons and we sing a song on the phone together or they make their silly noises (sounds of lasers or dinosaurs).

I found an announcement for entries of tapestries for an exhibit sponsored by the American Tapestry Alliance. The theme was to be “Frontier” meaning to develop a tapestry about an unexplored or undeveloped area. They further said that the artist should be creative and unafraid to push boundaries within the definition of tapestry.

During this season of renewal and hope, take a moment to think about the tapestry you are weaving. Perhaps you can always consider your tapestry a frontier – that there are still many things for you to learn and explore about the world around you and yourself. I hope as you continue developing your tapestry that you will be creative and unafraid to push the boundaries of this thing called life.

I’d like to share a reading from Robert F. Kaufmann entitled “To Our Children” my hope is that you will all think of these words as though they were from each of us to each of us as you continue to weave your tapestry no matter your age:

To Our Children
by Robert F. Kaufmann

We wish for you a storm or two that you may enjoy the calm

We wish for you tranquility in time of trial.

We wish you a cool breeze on a warm day, and pale white clouds

that you may better appreciate the blueness of the sky.

We wish you darkness that you may see the stars.

We wish you anticipation of high adventure, and we wish you the

courage to avoid battle.

We wish you a sense of wonder – and poetry – and music.

We wish you companionship that you may appreciate solitude.

We wish you a friend who will understand you, and understanding

so that you may have a friend.

We wish you may become all that you wish to be, and more than

you hope that you can be.

We wish you a flower to smell,

A hand to touch

A voice to cheer

A heart to gladden

And we wish you someone to love, as we love you.