When Mo sent out an invitation to join in the making of her installation "I Dream of a World Where Love is the Answer," I had visions of a little boat on a calm sea under twinkling starlight, all being peacefully stitched on lovely summer days.
Well, none of that happened.
Giving up on the idea of making it with a peaceful spirit, it was dipped into the fading indigo vat. After washing it, I started to iron it, and before I realized what was happening, there were holes melted into it. At first there was panic, but then Mo's phrase "our beautiful broken world" came to mind, and it began to take shape.
An earth of scraps and stitch was made. followed by a golden moon with the warm sun below, a few patches of deep space and starlight, and a scattering of stars across it all.
And while making, there was thinking, confusion, and a wondering if... maybe this is how it really is. This work and struggle for peace, healing the earth, trying to find a way through- It doesn't usually happen because everything is a calm and hunky-dory garden of sweet peas and roses. The ripped and rough places show us what's really going on, and call to us for mending. For most of us, we do what we can with what we have. Piecing together whatever kind of inner scraps we might have within. And just maybe, all of the frayed worn bits can be brought together and worked into a kind of wholeness again.
With a heart full of gratitude for Mo's vision and spirit, I'm sending wishes and prayers for, and into, the bigness of the Universe and our own small wished for cosmoses within it... May they all be patched and held together with our threads of hope and love.