#greensilkroad post #4
When thinking of weaving together a web of relationships and stories related to our life with earth I was focused on the countries we are passing through: India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Holland. But then two weeks ago I received a story for my birthday from a student at our primary school, and it was a Native American legend. Not quite EurAsia, but very much about homo ecologicus. I had imagined our travels as strands of a dreamcatcher — also not your typical Asian icon! In fact, wikipedia explains:
Ojibwe legend says the “spiderwebs” protective charms originate with Spider Woman, known as Asibikaashi; who takes care of the children and the people on the land. As the Ojibwe Nation spread to the corners of North America it became difficult for Asibikaashi to reach all the children, so the mothers and grandmothers weave webs for the children.
And then I spent the last week traveling with a group of textile professionals from New Zealand -the other end of the planet! Again, receiving stories totally not bioregional, but deeply steeped in connection with the elements, spirit and source of life. Am I too limited in my thinking about “what’s in and what’s out?”
I was given a green stone (Pounamu in Maori) as talisman, to guard me along the journey and it needs to be washed in sacred water. As it’s summer and most of the streams are dry in South India I decided to bless it with the first sacred running
water we pass along the way, thereby weaving in ancient nature based heritage from the far, far east.
So I decided to say hello to the world wide web of stories and narratives, and goodbye to restrictions on what is “in” and “out”. What happened next strengthened my resolve.
The first leg of the journey took us to Delhi where we had to get a visa for Pakistan. We knew it would not be easy but were not prepared for the real deal.
As I’m now typing on a phone keyboard on a very crowded, very bumpy bus I pause here and tell you the rest of the story tomorrow.
TravelApplause from Ilyas Aaqaoui, Revathi Dama, and
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