Author: Betsy Wiggins
Date: Saturday, July 5, 2008
Subject: Women Transcending Boundaries
In reply to: 100140

Dear Daryl:

You are a great gift to WTB. You brought your experience in meeting planning to make our March International Dinner a great success. Your service work with InterFaith Works' Center for New Americans has been inspiring, not just to new refugees in our community, but to everyone involved in this process.

I applaud all the WTB women who have participated in the "Knitting-Together" group that has been meeting weekly at the Center for New Americans for about three years. Women who are new to this country have bonded, mentored by volunteers from Women Transcending Boundaries and Rapha. Many refugees have spent years in camps and have experienced unspeakable hardships. This weekly respite offers them a time to laugh and learn life skills such as knitting, creating crafts, operating sewing machines, learning English, cleaning and food storage, and sharing customs - both from thir own cultures and from our American culture.

I want to share with readers of this blog the "Fabric of Life" project. Courageous women of diverse cultures have come together from many lands to share laughter and tears, discovering the commonalities among them. They sew, knit, eat, dance, play and find strength in community.

This "Fabric of Life" project exemplifies many journeys . . . the earth tones represent the forests and jungles and deserts of Burmese, African and Middle-Eastern homelands. The stars represent the hope of each woman as she climbs toward new horizons. The rainbow strip of fabric represents the blending of cultures into a unified whole. Fish can be found swimming across miles of fabric, as these women have swum against many currents of life to achieve freedom and safety. Colorful paper clips hold tenuous relationships with new friends as well as connections to memories, homelands left and new lands found. One blue and green strip of swirling feathers symbolizes birds in flight, indicating divine order emerging from swirling chaos.

This is a beautiful work of art Daryl. It is an incredible demonstration of what the gift of personal time (from those of us who have so much) can mean in reaching out to help women who have suffered greatly, but are incredibly rich in spirit. One of the tangible results is this tapestry - a soul work of art transcending pain and chaos.

I think we find ourselves blessing each other in these encounters for the rare gifts we bring each other.

Thank you.

Bets

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