Once upon a time, there was a woman whose people were in need of help; they suffered from a DisEase. Her own family was suffering, and their suffering made her sad.

 

She went on a long journey to find help for them. She went to mountains and valleys and far away cities.  Healers who lived in caves told her stories in languages she did not speak, but her body understood. Children offered her potions in the form of love and laughter and questions. Elders gave her seeds to plant. Trees whispered in her ear long-forgotten stories. As she kept searching, she carried with her the many gifts she was given. 

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And then, one day, one of the people whom she wanted to find a cure for, her own father, died from his suffering caused by the DisEase. She despaired. Had she searched for too long? Did she know what she had found? She stopped traveling from place to place. But the search continued: this time into her own history, her own people, her own place, her own soul. She learned to travel through time while staying in one place.

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From those external, internal and historical journeys she began to move. She sang new songs on ancient scales. Danced new dances to the oldest rhythms. Told new stories in the old way: quietly, sitting close together, with pauses between the words.

 

People began to pay attention to this movement. But she knew she was not yet fully well herself yet, either. So when her peers, who had witnessed her journey and wanted to learn from her, asked her to teach them, she hesitated a bit.  Yet who was she to insist upon perfection?

 

And so she said, Very Well. I will teach you. I will bring my pouch of gifts from around the world and my elixirs of lessons from our shared histories into a space that is both of this world and not of this world. You know me: you know that I also have the DisEase. But let us see what we can do. 

 

People came. As she listened to them, she began to mix together the elixirs, seeds, songs, and stories which had been gifted to her during her travels. It was like spinning new threads; weaving new fabrics; stitching new clothes. Her students watched her, and began to connect together their own disconnected pieces of themselves and their ecosystems. She witnessed them ReMembering. 

 

As students asked her questions, she realized that some of the questions needed their own distinct learning communities, and so new courses emerged. They began to tell new stories in new ways, to create new ways of knowing. They took her threads and wove new fabrics. Together, they began to stitch those fabrics into blankets that might keep their families safe from the DisEase that continued to spread throughout their beautiful country. She witnessed them ReEnchanting. 

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People came for one class - and they stayed for the texture of the fabric, the laughter they shared as they sat around the quilt they were creating. The pattern that was emerging on the quilt was so much more beautiful than any had imagined.  How was this, that to heal the DisEase could lead to such beauty? What treasure were their hands manifesting?

 

The woman has come home to her people. Her heart sings songs of rejoicing to her Creator.