The journey to well-being

A years-old homespun applique on cloth the saffron hue of subtle sunset hangs from clothespins above my kitchen table. I had worked on it during a workshop on trauma healing a decade ago. I cut and shaped, from various discarded fabrics, a patchwork of tiny huts, and within each stitched dwelling nested a cut-out crane. Connected by a trail of running stitches, letters in red-threaded chain stitches spell out a cluster of words in Bisayan, my mother tongue: ang matag adlaw usa ka paglawig ug ang matag paglawig usa ka puluy-anan. These words approximate the wise saying of the Japanese haiku master, Basho: ‘’Every day is a journey and the journey itself is home.’’

That needlework roosts in my consciousness today as I embark to re-join the digital community of World Pulse once again.

In the past ten months or so, recovery from the distress of episodic mental ill-health has been a priority. That inward sojourn took me to the horizons of Elsewhere, remote from the realms of a digital community. For a long while, the retreat was apt space to recoup and reflect, recharge and replenish energies gone threadbare.

Now, the journey to well-being brings me back to stand on the grounds of my digital habitat, this collective Spiral of creativity, spirit, community change-making and sisterhood.

Home once again is this crane, this World Pulse’s daughter.