Pink Coyote

Blog Tour: With Maya Donenfeld

My soulsister, Maya Donenfeld recently birthed her first book, called Reinvention: Sewing with Rescued Materials, (Wiley, 2012). In the process, she discovered a few lil gold nuggets...

Pour some tea and eavesdrop on our chat?

Maya, I wanted to share some aspects of you with my spirited readers who may not be acquainted with your magical ways. Reinvention shares so much of your fine work and innovation, and I appreciate your designs infinitely. However, the deeper synchronicity of your work are what have moved me most. This book is filled with behind the scenes alchemy which few will know about until they meet with you in one of your workshops.

I had always dreamed of writing, but this book took on a life of its own and continues to shape me in ways that I could never have imagined.  I've discovered that the very same way that I listen to rescued materials to discover what they want to become, is key to understanding how to connect with my own strengths and challenges to actualize my true potential. There are so many deeply moving metaphors in the world of textile manipulation and design. I began to recognize that the ripping of seams to reconstruct a pair of jeans into a hammock was not so unlike the transformation that was taking place inside me as I went from dream seeker to dream maker.

Mmm, I love that. There's a shift that happens when we manifest a creative project, and it's not limited to the new entity that now exists. It's like our cells literally change when we're aligned on our path of growth.

I see you as a luminous teacher: women come out of your classes lit up and chanting the names of their projects, which I've heard when working next door to you! What are some of your brightest memories of teaching your designs? Which experiences have left you illuminated? Tell us a story, if you can.

I love hearing that... that is my greatest hope when I teach- that folks will leave full and glowing from their own handiwork. At the beginning of each new class, many walk through the door with some sort of anxiety about their abilities or their lack of experience in one area or another. We all know that feeling of vulnerability... that tender place we go to when we desire something new so badly, but don't trust that we are capable. My goal is to meet these fears head on, by creating a space where there is so much love and acceptance that self-judgements don't have a place to land... they simply fly out the window. One of my favorite moments when this played out was with a lovely woman who seemed confident in every way, but was terrified at the thought of sitting down at a sewing machine. The day before our sewing workshop she confided in me that she had decided she just wasn't ready and was going to drop the class. And since she had intentionally not brought supplies, it seemed in her mind "meant to be" to not come. I listened and invited her to come anyway and just watch. No pressure. I had more than enough material for her if she changed her mind. The next day I could see how much courage it took for her to walk through the door. As she watched me do a demo, she asked "is this like baking (precise science) or cooking?"  I told her the way I sew is definitely like an improvised meal. From that point on she was ready to jump in... she was ready to get cookin'! By the day's end, she was blissfully creating with fabric and calling herself a sewer. Feeling capable is quite powerful.

That you create such a safe space for women to explore, improvise and fall into a trance seems unusual for a sewing workshop! This is why your students connect so deeply with you, Maya. You make it safe for them to bring their emotions in the door, come as they are...and see what happens. You know I'm all about this. Textiles stirs a lot of history for me, and for others, I've seen.You midwife your students so gently, and the book has the same kind of gentle care and encouragement-some sewing books don't draw me in-they can be a bit...precise. What I love about your book and your workshops is how well they lend themselves to not just the beginner, but to she who is just setting out on her heart-meets-hands journey.

Your aesthetic is impeccable, it goes without saying. You've become known as a rescuer, and yet, your designs come across as very refined (even those Tyvek pouches, which will be my first project from Reinvention). Has it always been this way for you? When did you commit to your love affair with repurposing?

I've always loved the alchemical process of taking something humble or useless and giving it new life. My family was extremely creative and resourceful, so this was my model as a child and teenager. It seemed only natural to continue repurposing for own family... for both economical and ecological reasons. As far as my aesthetic, having a mother who is an artist definitely shaped my desire to create lovely surroundings... even the artful arrangement of everyday objects. She showed me that it is precisely those items that we use and see all the time that should prove to be inspiring, as well as useful. My aesthetic has grown out of that desire for simple, utilitarian beauty.

I am so grateful for your work, for your beautiful light in the world, for your passion for the Earth and her creatures, and for the blessing of calling you friend. Seeing this book come to life from the sidelines, and witnessing your process, has been a magnificent honor.

See where Maya has been previously on her Blog Tour, and where she's going!

5/1- sew liberated
5/2- Craft
5/3- Resurrection Fern
5/4- Apartment Therapy

5/7 Whip Up
5/8 elsie marley
5/9 Poppytalk
5/10 Annekata
5/11 Pink Coyote (you're here!)

5/14 Betz White
5/15 Etsy
5/16 Sew, Mama, Sew!
5/17 Made
5/18 Wiley Craft

******

Visit Maya at mayamade.com

Maiden Voyage

Thank you all so much for your encouragement and support of SouLodge's new space on the web and for all of the love around the Plant a Kiss Day entry. I feel truly part of a community here and in Lodge. I'm so grateful to offer the Mountain Lion teaching to all of you who are yearning to create a special ceremony for the Summer Solstice, and that so many of you have already jumped in. It's going to be an amazing mini-adventure together.

I've just been speaking with a friend who is currently living out a period of being in hell, and it brought up a lot for me. Holding a safe space container and a community for women to do their soulwork, messy and enlightened, allows me the same. I wonder if I knew that when I began last year? The Lodge that just completed was Spring, which means myself and many women who have walked the Medicine Wheel with me during that time, have completed an entire year of holding the teachings of the seasons close. It also means that we've had a full year to unfurl in the various processes that come up when engaging in soulwork-some of which is the hell period.

When I turned thirty-nine a year and a half ago, I felt like I was on Persephone's voyage into Hades. I was looking at all of the things that were working and not working, attempting to take shameless responsibility for my truth and my nature. One of the many things I was turning over in the muck, was not having another baby. My toil about it sucked me down into an isolated place, and I recoiled by holing up in my shadow until I was able to come to terms with it. I had to let it go, lest it eat me alive.

For any of you who have been through this, or are currently experiencing it, I want to emphasize the concept of shamelessness when walking an awakened path. It can be so difficult to stand tall in hell; to acknowledge that there is a dark side of the Moon and that we can't avoid the work we're called upon to do down there.

The maiden Persephone learned many lessons while with Hades. She was abducted, against her will. She awakened as a Queen down there. She had to lose her innocence and attachments to her family in order to become her whole self, from her own consciousness.

Her maidenhood was forever altered, and she had to agree to grow up, to understand that in order to ascend, she had to look at the teachings below. Again and again. Showing up to this can often take on the look of depression. What if we saw depression in this culture as our time underground to sort things through? To discover the truth clearly, without engaging the voices of shame, guilt, and those which keep us from truth? It requires so much trust. So much willingness to unsign contracts, and allow for mistakes (or perceived mistakes) to teach us.

What do you feel you learn or are faced with again and again?

How can you reframe your thinking around the pattern in order to bring new perspective?

What are the undeniable aspects of you which call for your attention?

To stand in power, we must learn to celebrate what is innate in us, and let the rest go. I cannot teach what I have not, or am not, learning.

Thank you all for the sacred space you hold in your own lives for authentic process, to be in a healing place, unapologetically. To claim it in front of those who may not understand.

 

Sitting In Bed Eating Cookies or I Have a New Website

Uncle Eddie's Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, if you must know. My Achille's heel.

I'm going to drop all formalities here in my own bed, in the virtual equivalent of my own living room, and just say that it has been craazyballs around here for weeks. These cycles of building and shedding are killing me. Not really.

But definitely testing my ability to command balance. The SouLodge website just got a major overhaul and it's...it's beautiful. Can I say that about my own website? It's midnight, and I'm eating cookies in bed. I reckon I can say anything at this point. There is still much work to do-cushions to fluff-but I'm pretty proud.

I also designed a way for us to celebrate Summer Solstice considering how well Winter's Releasing Ceremony went over. (Did you know that video was downloaded over 73,000 times?) We're finding each other. What I love about the work I'm doing for Lodge is how the beauty which shows up in women every.single.session. is the exact beauty I adore in the Earth. Messy, on fire with creativity, learning how to evolve and walk in balance, accepting what is without taking things personally, and...forgiveness-all aspects that our natural environment demonstrates for us daily. It's unbelievable.

Summer's Solstice Ceremony has an ecstatic quality about it. Go check it out. I'll have another cookie while you show yourself around...

I hope you love the changes we've made! Thank you for joining me on this virtual journey and for walking in your divine light.

 

Spreading Joy in the World: Plant a Kiss Day

In the spirit of Amy Krouse Rosenthal's work (author of Little Pea and so many more), 16 inspiring and creative bloggers (including me!) set out to "Plant a Kiss" in the world on Sunday, April 29. We each did something we thought would spread a little extra joy, color, connection, poetry, or magic in the world. Then we watched to see what would happen! Today each of us is posting about that experience. Click here to visit the main Plant a Kiss page, where you can easily link to all participating bloggers. For every blog that you visit and comment on, your name will be tossed into a hat for a chance to win one of many amazing prizes such as online writing, photography, or dream-building classes; coaching sessions; artwork, or jewelry.

Sherry Richert Belul, of Simply Celebrate asked me if I'd like to participate in Plant a Kiss Day on April 29th at a time when I felt I couldn't take on one more thing. However, the reminder to me was, how much time, energy and effort does it take to create just a moment of conscious and joyful doing among community? How could I say no? Amy's books are read weekly, if not daily, in this house. Easy peasy.

My own Little Miss and I decided that our favorite way to spread magic is to make an offering to the seasons, and it was her idea to honor the Mama Dove that sits right in the East on her nest with two baby dovelets, high in the peach tree.

Careful not to disturb her security, as there are always a mob of nest-robbers sitting in wait, we put a plate of seed at the foot of the tree, before acting as anxious paparazzi and obtaining one blurry photo of our guest of honor.

Spring is the season associated with the East on the Medicine Wheel, and it seemed as though many stars aligned to bring us to this tree, in the East, filled with nurturing and new life. Being of service to the winged ones is our way of honoring the East.

Hop over to see what everyone else did to celebrate Plant a Kiss Day, some of my favorite bloggers will be waiting to greet you with a little bit of joy.

Treebones Treehouse Over the Sea

We have nothing to fear and a great deal to learn from trees, that vigorous and pacific tribe which without stint produces strengthening essences for us, soothing balms, and in whose gracious company we spend so many cool, silent and intimate hours.

-- Marcel Proust, Pleasures and Regrets

Thank you, Carrie, and Treebones Resort, for indulging me.

Silent Green & Blue

Noise is not merely inconvenient or harmful, it is an unadmitted and uncomprehended means to an end: compensation of the fear which is only too well founded. If there were silence, their fear would make people reflect, and there's no knowing what might then come to consciousness...the real fear is what might come up from one's own depths-all the things that have been held at bay by noise. --C.G. Jung

Infected with Spring fever and the beginning of another amazing SouLodge course, I have done my usual and gone MIA here. Until today, when it poured cats and dogs, I've been drinking up the sunshine and watching my children grow. Why do they seem so much bigger in sunlight? It's a very good respite, and balancing to temper my workaholism with some outdooring.

Ahhhhh.