Reflections from the Retreat October 2025

There’s something about weaving patterns which I find very satisfying whether it’s a woven basket, a weaving pattern of wool or a Celtic pattern like the one above. There is a rhythm and a flow of the undulating threads that captures my gaze and holds my attention. I enjoy following the consistent patterns of the over and under rhythm, providing a reassuring unbroken trail of predictability. This symmetrical style has been used in Celtic traditions to represent the eternal circle of life and our interconnectivity. The threads flow and give a sense of movement and for me they represent the Divine flow which I sense in my life. The threads of life come together and weave a path that emerges one step at a time.

However, life doesn’t seem as ordered and as predictable as the pattern above. Recently someone gave me a book on drawing free-flowing Celtic weaving patterns. This inspired me to play around with a freer form of Celtic weave (such as the photo below). Perhaps this is a truer image of life – living with the not quite knowing where it will end up and the possibility of threads going in unpredictable directions but trusting the process.

Allowing the freedom of flow is important. I recently heard a lovely creation story from the Yoruba people of Nigeria. According to this story, the supreme creator God sent 16 male gods to create earth, and he also sent 1 female goddess, Oshun.  The male gods got busy creating the mountains and the forests and building the earth, but they left Oshun out of the work and let her just sit and watch. After they had finished, they looked at the newly formed earth. They saw that it looked structurally good but somehow it had no life and something important was missing. So, they returned to the Supreme God to ask for help. The Supreme God asked about Oshun, and they confessed that they had not included her. So, the gods were sent back to earth and they asked Oshun to help. She then brought water to flow across the earth, and this feminine flow brought life. This is a wonderful story of how we need both structure and flow to create life - as well as both male and female energies.

A few weeks ago, I went to the Grenada Book Festival which was an inspiring gathering of authors and artists with a shared passion for books. I wandered around the various stalls and exhibitions, chatting to various people.  As I looked around the large room, there was a lovely buzz of conversation and a sense of people weaving in and out with each other and a flow of words and laughter.

There is a powerful flow which happens when people come together to talk about things they feel passionate about. This event, like so many, would have begun with a conversation and from that a whole festival took shape. Perhaps we underestimate the power of conversations to create change. Life seems to be made up of people weaving into each other's lives, rolling and varied conversations that create change and a flow of different people and communities that shape each other. All world religions would have began with conversations. Inventions and businesses came into being because people talked about ideas and possibilities. I know in my own life, there have been key conversations and key people that have gradually nudged me a certain direction and shaped who I am. I wonder if there are key conversations and people that come to mind which have shaped your own life at significant moments?

I sometimes struggle with ‘small talk’ but, as I read somewhere, small talk can lead to ‘big talk’ – the superficial questions moving to the deeper questions. As I stop to chat to various people and have conversations and ask questions, I get to know Grenada better and I am growing a network of friends and contacts. Those conversations sometimes flow and take a life of their own and it feels that something is taking shape before our eyes of future possibilities and collaborative working.  

And at the heart of good conversations, are good questions. These shape the direction of travel and determine where we arrive in our conversations. As a therapist, I’m very aware of the questions I ask – is it going to close the conversation down or open it up? Is it going to help the person see a difficult situation in a new way or to remain stuck? Therapy is another example in which conversations create change. These conversations can be catalysts to kick start a major life change or to help a person see their situation differently.

The word ‘question’ comes from the Latin ‘to seek’ as is the word ‘quest.’ Perhaps a quest is a question in action and perhaps we all need to have an ongoing quest or a question to keep us moving forward and learning. So what are the questions that shape my life and yours? For example, I can ask ‘why have I got yet another leak?’ or I can ask ‘how am I going to get this leak fixed?’ The first question can make me feel powerless whereas the second question leads to action.  Questions shape our mindset and can act as doorways or threshold points for change. Like the question I once pondered on with my husband: 'how could we develop a retreat house in Grenada?!' So I wonder, what are the questions that shape your life at the moment?

Another sense of flow that I am aware of in my life here, is the flow of finances. Though with all the work needed on this house, it is often more a flowing out than a flowing in! But this living by faith on the edge of my finances has been another part of the learning journey which I’m on- trusting that the flow will keep flowing. Within the community that I am part of, Contemplative Fire, we talk about flow when we consider our finances. The challenge is to see finances as flow and that as we give out, that there is also a flow in; to see abundance rather than scarcity and to have flow rather than accumulation. There is a greater freedom in using finances when we see them in the context of an ongoing flow.

For those of you who are familiar with the daily meditations from Richard Rohr, the flow of finances was a topic he explored last week. A challenge he shared in one of his recent meditations was ‘to invest in the Divine ecosystem of interdependence and sharing’ and ‘transfer your trust to the larger system, if you seek first and foremost the Divine ecosystem, you will end up with everything you need.’

This is a countercultural way to live and an ongoing challenge and yet I’ve seen God’s timing and provision here again and again. Just a few weeks ago I asked someone to start some more work on the house, despite my limited finance. On the day he started the job, I received a significant donation that not only covered that work but will help to pay for other work needed. I’ve seen this pattern repeatedly, of needing the finances and they arrive just in time, like a flow of life-giving water.

Over the last few months, I have been making some macrame plant hangers for the guest bedrooms. The repeating of knots is like the Celtic weaving, and I enjoy seeing the patterns taking shape. They are a creative reminder of the weaving of threads in my own life and the need for me to trust the flow and to be open to the sacred weaving together of life’s varied threads.  So, whether it’s a macrame plant holder, a flow of finances or threads of conversations, there is an ongoing flow, weaving together to create something new.