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Weaving Connections |
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We experience nature when we drive a country road, walk beneath trees or ride a horse, appreciate a sunset or go sailing on a windy bay. People in cultures, places, and times all over the world have had such |
experiences. They make -- and made --records of them. These records are found in stories, art, spiritual traditions, science, and even the cells of our bodies. Some records convey the emotions that attended the experience; others, the sense of understanding it brought.
When peoples' relationship with the land is vibrantly whole and functional, all these things -- story, art, spiritual tradition, science, and body -- are also parts of a vibrant and functional whole. But that relationship has been gravely wounded in contemporary culture. So while the records still exist, they are no longer connected to each other. Yet, these records still connect human beings to the land in the largest possible sense.
Because they do, they also connect what Tapestry does, how we operate, and the methods we use.
One place to look for the bones of relationship between humans and the earth is in stories of personal experience. |
This timed-exposure of the stars wheeling in their great circle around Polaris, above ancient rock sentinels of the desert, conveys the experience of the photographer in a powerful way. The stories of our personal experiences convey information, and that information contains meaning.
Art is another source of information about the natural world and its relationship with human beings. |
Schedules, commutes, and artificial light have impacted our lives more than we can easily imagine now. They have separated us from a natural presence so powerful that "day" and "night" remain our primary markers of time despite all the changes that seek to blur those boundaries. If you don't think "day" and "night" still mean something to the cells of your body, consider this: working "swing shift" has meaning. And crossing multiple time zones in a single plane flight has consequences that can't be remedied simply by "staying on home time" when not home.
The information found in all the types of "bones" listed on this page -- information about the nature-human relationship found in art, story, science, personal experience, spiritual tradition, and our bodies -- is the information Tapestry gathers and weaves together in our projects. It is the raw material from which we can all restore our great and ancient kinship with the earth. |
Learn more:
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