Tending the Web

The poems in this collection interact with the image of a web in a variety of ways, with a unifying thread-of claiming our connection and belonging-running through.

There many ways of seeing and tending webs. We are all in the center of our own web of relationships, and much of the work of our lives is a steady tending to those connections. There is the web of social relationships that make up a wider culture, and our common work of tending the safety net, strengthening the frayed places, mending the holes, making sure no one falls through. There is the great web of life that sustains us all, and the work of locating and claiming our place by paying attention to all the other parts that make up that great whole. There is our attitude toward our own work and whether we see it as a linear series of tasks to be crossed off when completed or a web of relationships and opportunities with our love at the center.

As there are many ways of envisioning a web, there are also many skills and dispositions involved in its tending, and the reader is invited to breathe through its order. Breathe in as we connect, touching the potential of relationship everywhere. Breathe out as we extend, stretching to new connections, new possibilities. Breathe in as we notice, taking in the reality of the world around us. Breathe out as we engage, bringing our energy and intention to act into a relationship. Breathe in as we receive, noticing the process of taking in what nourishes us. Breathe out as we mend, bringing greater wholeness to that which may be broken or in need of repair.

Breathe in as we rest, putting attention to that which restores. Breathe out as we celebrate, giving thanks to all that brings joy. Breathe in as we grieve, naming that which is lost. Breathe out as we tend, doing the quiet work of nurturing the life around and within us. Continue breathing as we reset, open to things not being as they seem, present to the potential of a world made new.

The inspiration for these poems is the everyday encounter, mediated by compassion, sensitivity and grit. Affirmed by what she has experienced, the poet in return affirms the world around her, in this way tending the web of life.