Wednesday, July 25, 2007

The tapestry of my life is filled with vibrant colour

Life is a beautiful tapestry. Colour and feeling woven together, threads drawn, threads snipped. Threads that hold their weave forever, threads that loose their warp and loosen. Each day threads connect, disconnect, Weave in. Weave out. Up and down, in and out in a rhythmic wave of motion.

The tapestry of my life is created beneath a warm and gentle weave of waves rolling into the sea, pulling under, pulling out, pushing forward. Each person, each encounter, each moment creates a delicate, vibrant thread, to be followed, to be left alone, to be explored, to be cherished for the value it adds, then tucked into the warp so that it doesn't unravel.

We each have our tapestry. Vibrant. Colourful. Filled with design. Sometimes balanced. Sometimes just a riotous explosion of feeling and texture and colour and design.

Sometimes, we step back and look at a thread and see where its value has created a unique perspective that will last a lifetime. Sometimes we step into a colour and discover its value is the length of the space it fills. No matter the length of the thread, its value is integral to the overall weave and warp of our tapestry.

Like colour. To enhance green, to make it pop out, the artist adds a hint of red at its edges. To make blue sparkle, a touch of yellow. Each colour adds value to the next.

Each encounter in my life adds depth, meaning, value. I carry with me memories, lessons learned, feelings felt, ideas explored. I carry with me the touch of someone's gentle words upon my heart, the imprint of their laughter. Their smile. Their eyes.

Every thread adds value not always seen to the one who has linked their thread into my tapestry and woven their unique story into mine, as I've woven mine into theirs.

Thoughts spinning, ideas leaping, the weave expanding to include the weave of someone else's threads.

That's life.

When a new thread begins to spin into my tapestry, I cannot see the 'big picture' value. I can only see the gentle warp and weave of a colour coming through the fabric of my life. It takes time to gather enough momentum, enough colour, enough space to create a meaningful picture of what that thread means in the picture I am creating of my life. Like writing a story. The characters must develop. They need time to expand, to reveal all their hidden depths, to explore the story that is unfolding.

I used to read the ending of a book first. I said it was because I was a writer. I wanted to examine the author's creative structure. I didn't want to be distracted by the story.

Truth is, I didn't want to be distracted by not knowing the ending. I wanted to know the ending from the beginning because I was impatient for the story to unfold. My impatience meant I couldn't savour each moment of the reading without being reassured of the ending first.

My need to read the ending first evaporated one day. Not sure when. But I've found myself reading, not leaping forward to the end, not leaping to conclusions, simply letting the story unfold.

Like life. Like relationships. Like love.

All stories need time. All people need time to feel the warp and weave of the story being created in their life. There's a lot of ways to pull a thread through a tapestry. Slow and gently, letting the strength of the wool determine the speed, the tension, the pull. Sometimes, when the pull of the thread is too fast, too sharp, too rigid, the thread breaks. Not because it didn't add value, but rather because its value never had time to unfold into the the tapestry through which it was being woven. The weaver hurried the process, pushed ahead of the flow. Like reading the ending of a story first, the weaver leaped to the value of its thread, and missed the value of the story unfolding.

The story of my life is a vibrant weave of feelings, colours, sensations, ideas, emotions, thoughts, actions. I am the weaver. I am the tapestry. I am the thread.

I am the life I create when I turn up, pay attention, speak my truth and stay unattached to the outcome. I do not look for the ending. I hold onto the the thread and weave a story of love, joy, compassion. A story of feeling the journey flowing beneath my fingertips and revelling in the warp and weave of its flow.

I am blessed. My tapestry is filled with the rich and vibrant colours of my life. Filled with love and friendship, of time spent with people who matter to me and to whom I matter. Of people who I count on to be part of my weave forever.

I am grateful for slim threads of friendship that have become rivers of colour flowing throughout my life. Of love that endures and smiles that I carry inside me, warming my heart with their glowing threads of memory that will never end.

These are the values woven into my tapestry. This is the colour of my life.

May your day be filled with colour and texture. May the values woven into the tapestry of your life be filled with love. May you create with every thought, word, idea, action, motion, feeling, emotion the beautiful tapestry of a rich and vibrant life in which your dreams come true.

2 comments:

Björn Aspernäs said...

That is so beautifully said. I stumbled upon your blog when I did a random search on the subject of human life and storytelling, and I am very happy I did. Your words are an inspiration, and I hope that your tapestry has continued to sparkle with life & colour, since the day you wrote this entry.

Sincerely,
Björn, Sweden

Louise Gallagher said...

Thank you Bjorn -- how lovely to have a visitor from Sweden drop in!

And yes, my tapestry continues to sparkle with life and colour, a vibrant river of joy, caressing each moment with love.

I hope yours does too!

(and I wish I could put the umlaut over your 'o'!)

Have a beautiful, colourful day.

Louise