Yesterday was a particularly exciting day because we were having our first weaving workshop. I packed my backstrap loom that has traveled with me from Guatemala to NY and back to Guatemala without being touched. The women from Ajkem’s Loy’a and the students spread around the house, setting up their work stations. I chose to go outside in the front yard and tie my loom to a tree. As soon as I started weaving, the world around me disappeared and I entered into a very peaceful state of mind. Once in a while, my trance was interrupted by kids laughter, requests for translation and ants biting my feet.

Weaving the thread in and out of the loom transported me to far away places, cherished memories and dreams about the future. The art of weaving allowed me to coexist in multiple times, places and dimensions. Past, present and future were interwoven into the very fabric of my scarf. Each knot, each space represents a moment in an alternative reality and, in someway, tells the story of my most intimate hopes and fears. There is a thread for each of my loved ones, the people that have shared a moment of their lives with me and by that interaction made me stronger and wiser. There is a thread for those that have hurt me because they have helped me understand and cherish my own power. There is a thread for those that have challenged me, because it is only through those challenges that I have striven to try harder and improve myself. And finally, there is a thread for all of those people, things, moments that have inspired me, because it is in those moments of inspiration that I find my true being.

Nine hours later, I snapped out of the trance only to realize that the story of my life had been woven…