The Earth Said: Sheila’s personal quilt
This little quilt was designed for Sheila’s 70th
Birthday, which occurred on July 4, 2014. My friend Sheila is a Catholic nun
belonging to the Presentation Order of Sisters, from the Wagga Wagga. With
almost 50 years of service, her commitments, experiences and achievements in
the service of her fellow human beings form the ground of her being. I had
heard quite a few of the stories, but spatial limitations were a
concern! Thankfully, according to Sheila’s directions the quilt became about A3
in size, and contains 3 motifs she requested: trees; the moon and water (for
her birth sign in Cancer); and wolf, her spiritual totem (and I suspect what
could be described as her inner daemon).
Sheila has lived in the Blue Mountains since 2000 and become
deeply embedded in and embraced by the many local and wider communities she
continues to serve locally today. Over the years, since meeting at the Seasonal
Rituals held by GlenYs Livingstone, we have become friends as we journey on our
personal spiritual paths, which have many similar directions: in our study of
the Universe Story, in the sharing of Goddess stories and love of the
environment.
With a sigh of relief after content and size of the ‘brief’
was established, I started to think about design features of the future quilt.
Living in the beautiful World Heritage area of the Blue Mountains, it is
impossible not to be aware of the wonderful imposing eucalypts, so many
different varieties in such abundance.
Creating the “tree of life”
It became clear that the focal point of the design was to be
a “tree of life” – at once representative of Sheila’s amazing life’s
achievements and the bigger notion of Life as we experience it on our Earth. Over
a few months I had taken photos with Sheila’s quilt in mind. Next stage in
design emerged with the finalization of the angophora to represent the Tree of
Life. The final form of the angophora is based on the magnificent specimen in
my front yard – a choice made by Sheila, after I’d presented her with several
drawings of eucalypts. As a species, the angophora is distinct from the genera
of the eucalyptus, of which there are over 750 varieties. The positioning of
branches lead the eye up from the massive trunk towards the limitlessness of
space – a space taking the eye and mind out into ‘the Universe story’. As
serendipity would have it, came across the poem by Lauren de Boer called “Earth
Said”, which I had hidden away in a folder somewhere. It seemed to me to
express Sheila’s achievements, challenges and aspirations, and went on the back
of the quilt together with the dedication.
Be like a tree.
Stay rooted in the dream.
Give yourself fully to the changing seasons.
There is a time to
leaf and flower,
A time to release
and be dormant.
A tree doesn’t worry or fret
about whether it is an oak or a
eucalypt,
a sycamore or a wattle.
It gives itself fully to its aliveness.
A tree doesn’t worry about success or
failure,
because they don’t exist.
They are only concepts in the mind.
“The Earth Said”: a poem by Lauren de Boer (with minor
alterations of names of trees for the Southern Hemisphere.)
This is how the angophora became translated into a pattern
to work with once fabric was selected.
I had been reading about the form of the circle in relation
to the gift exchange view of economic interactions, as they have developed and
been modified through the history of ‘western civilization’ (Hyde, ‘The gift’,
2007)[1]
I realised that the methods for ‘gift exchange’ as they are explored in Lewis
Hyde’s book, not only relate to Sheila’s actions in her life, expressed through
her vow of poverty, but are very much part of my own ethics about equitable
exchanges. The full moon in the quilt, initially included to represent the star
sign of Cancer, took up another meaning. From the perspective of the Earth, the
diameter of the moon seems to diminish and increase, as the light falling on
the moon wanes and waxes. Hyde uses the metaphor of the radius of the circle to
define different types of relationships, where the exchange moves between the
value to be had in giving through engaging in the “spirit of the gift’’ as
experienced in tribal societies for the benefit of the whole community, to the
current expression of exchange that is engaged in as a response motivated by an
individual’s desire for personal enhancement. In the former, the radius from
the self is elongated, until a boundary is drawn through encountering someone
‘other’, outside the group. In the latter the radius has perhaps all but
disappeared, such that the ‘other’ is perceived as everyone but the self. Hyde
writes of this waxing and waning as a continuum, a sequential continuum in
historical time for sure, but it can also be in feeling the pull and resistance
of the swing in the present time. It is this indigenous sensibility for
inclusion of the other as far as possible that must be at the heart of Sheila’s
endeavours.
Wolf as totem daemon
While searching on the net for a wolf image, I came across
the blogspot of Susan Hawthorne.
The page describes a visit to a small museum in Italy, north of Rome if
I remember rightly, where Susan unexpectantly comes across the image of a wolf
woman carved on a small stone dated at 300,000 years before the present – give
or take a few! The image has a very clear representation of the pubic triangle,
with breasts and arms fold across the stomach. The link is here:
Sheila told me
she had been to a retreat in the USA where she “met” her totem, wolf, or
perhaps more accurately, wolf came to her. Her totem has stayed with her,
providing her with guidance, insights and comfort, hiding protectively here beside the angophora. Final touch at the base of the quilt, is the positioning of four gumleaves, representing the cycling seasons.
Happy seventieth B'Earthday Sheila!
[1] Lewis Hyde
(2007 3rd ed) The Gift, Cannongate Books, UK. Although originally
published in 1982, this book has provided many insightful moments for me.
Highly recommended.
