Tending the Web

<p>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.</p><p><br></p><p>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. </p><p><br></p><p>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 <em>connect</em> touching the potential of relationship everywhere. Breathe out as we <em>extend</em> stretching to new connections new possibilities. Breathe in as we <em>notice</em> taking in the reality of the world around us. Breathe out as we <em>engage</em> bringing our energy and intention to act into a relationship. Breathe in as we <em>receive</em> noticing the process of taking in what nourishes us. Breathe out as we<em> mend</em> bringing greater wholeness to that which may be broken or in need of repair. </p><p><br></p><p>Breathe in as we <em>rest</em> putting attention to that which restores. Breathe out as we <em>celebrate</em> giving thanks to all that brings joy. Breathe in as we<em> grieve</em> naming that which is lost. Breathe out as we <em>tend</em> doing the quiet work of nurturing the life around and within us. Continue breathing as we <em>reset</em> open to things not being as they seem present to the potential of a world made new.</p><p><br></p><p>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.</p>