Healing Handcrafting

Tag Archives: Imbolc


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Summoning Creativity #8 ~ Spring’s Threshold

Today into tomorrow is known as many things: Imbolc, St. Brigid’s Day, the Feast of Brigid to name a few. In the northern hemisphere, it marks the time between the winter solstice and the spring equinox and is a time when there are glimmers of warmer times to come. Right now it is 2 degrees Fahrenheit where I live, so temperature-wise, spring might be hard to sense, but there is a noticeable lightening of the sky and certain bird songs remind me that we are part of a cycle, always.

Photo by Aaron J Hill

The ancient Goddess Brigid is associated with poetry, smithing, fertility, keening, and protection. There are many more aspects of her and this would be a lovely time to read up on her. Just looking at those associations, I notice that they are all to do with creation/creativity, keeping that which is grown and cherished safe, and grief. A full cycle embodied in one goddess.

For this month’s Summoning Creativity post, I thought it might be fun to play with words as a way of interacting with the Goddess Brigid’s poetry aspect. Expression of self through words carries significant energy- we take what is in our minds, hearts, bodies and put it through the fires of wordsmithing to communicate with other minds, hearts, and bodies.

One need not write a poem to engage with this energy, but certainly you can! Below I’ll list some ideas to take on today and for this month to work with the power of words. We know all too well that words can work to elevate and express love, can serve as acts of resistance, can illustrate passions, can take us to places in our imaginations that were, prior to reading them, unknown. Words can also be used to attack, harm, humiliate, and isolate others. We must always be responsible for choosing our words.

As we head into the time when winter releases its grip and spring pushes to emerge into new life and new growth, let’s play with words and see what happens.

Photo by Viktoria Emilia

Some ideas:
~ Write down one word a day that is of interest to you and put it in a location where you will see it and be reminded to think of it. Look up the definition and the etymology of the word and see what comes to mind. If a word doesn’t come to mind, flip through a dictionary or book you have around and open to a page. Wherever your eyes naturally find themselves on the page, choose a word.
~ Write a letter to someone- the paper kind! And mail it!
~ Write a poem.
~ Read a poem.
~ Write a word and think about what color it is. Play with that. Maybe paint around it, draw the word, or weave it!
~ Perhaps there’s an email that could be sent to a state politician that implores them to consider a different point of view? Or that supports them in continuing the fight that they are in?
~ Listen to an author read something they wrote or they love.
~ Consider how you would like to use your words to communicate with people in the coming months. Is there anything that you’d like to express that has been hard to put in to words? Call on Brigid’s smithing and fire energies and apply them to working with expression.
~ Look to the sky whenever you are feeling overwhelmed and/or the creative spark is tired or feels far away and breathe. Say one word (or more) that describes what you see. Does it elevate you? or sadden you? Let your eyes find something to rest on that is neutral and simply describe what you see with no judgement. Just be. See what happens…

Enjoy the process of playing with the power of words! See how they feel as you say them, write them, hear them. And look for those signs of spring!

Until next time,

~ bradie


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Hey. How Are You?

No really. How are you?

A friend of mine mentioned the other day that I hadn’t written here in a bit. She’s known me long enough to recognize a pattern of mine which is that I do a pretty full retreat from online things when there’s something I’m sorting out. I got to talk about the things that I’ve been chewing on, and she listened. She also said she missed seeing what I’m up to when it comes to making things. This was a beautiful nudge. Very well-rounded.

Grief, as you likely already know, takes its toll on people. As someone who’s written a lot about grief, a whole book in fact, you’d think maybe I’d know some tricks on how to navigate the experience with greater ease. But I’m here to tell you, there are no easy ways through the process. In all my writing, talking, supporting, and expressing, never once do I suggest there is a “get-through-grief-the-easy-way” option. It is simply something we must go through, feel, adapt to, and be chiseled by. Ultimately, we are charged with getting to know ourselves and others in our new form, as someone changed by what we’ve experienced.

I’ve noticed about myself that when I’m swimming in the grief waters, I need to take some steps back from those things that put me out there into the world. Certain aspects of grief make me feel like I’m a flipped over turtle, and the last thing I need in those circumstances is to feel more vulnerable during those times.

As we approach the year anniversary of when my dad died, we are also making our way through cold winter here in Vermont. In a few days, it will be February 1, Imbolc, which marks the halfway point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. This is when, in the Northern Hemisphere, the light starts to shift and come back. Many are thinking about the seeds they’re going to start indoors in preparation for the spring plantings. The goddess Brigid is honored in her many forms. We are invited to clean our houses, set our intentions, and think about what we want to bring into fruition in the coming growing cycles.

sun snow…

I will be honoring both of these events. I feel ready for the light to come back after relishing resting in the dark.

Creative life has been full all these months. I’ve been teaching at the Shelburne Craft School, a place that has truly become a home away from home. I also have spent time with folks in my studio, supporting their weaving journey. I’m taking a tapestry weaving class with Elizabeth Buckley, all about weaving water. I am learning so much!

my first attempt to weave reflections in water… not easy, my friends. I have a ways to go, but I’m loving the class.

I have a lot of little projects going on as well, including a new daily weaving practice that has absolutely no plan, so we’ll see how it goes.

Oh, and I made some block prints…

I’m creating things for a new class I’ll be offering called Wild Weaving, where we get to blast out our creativity and impulses into the embrace of a waiting warp.

And, I’m developing an online class as part of our Weaving Your Story programming through the craft school. This is a curriculum I’ve been developing for a couple of years and has become a very important part of my life.

All amazing work to get to be doing!

I still need to finish weaving some towels so I can get started on a new installation idea that won’t let go of my imagination. That is a project I’ll be planting seeds for soon, in hopes that it will be born over the summer months. You heard it here first! It’s got ties to this piece that was in a show in South Burlington last year.

Creative energy builds when we learn how to rest in the ways we need.

That’s it for now. Thank you, dear friend, for asking for an update.