My church hosts a monthly gathering where we discuss issues related to racial and ethnic justice in America.

One night, the woman sitting next to me, a woman I’ve sat with and talked with several times over the months, told me that my long, straight hair was a trigger to her.

When last we left our intrepid adventurer, she was puzzled as to how to remove several large black India ink stains from her grandfather's linen handkerchief, which had been a wedding gift embroidered by her grandmother.

Sometimes I don’t know exactly where I get my ideas for weaving. Sometimes I do.

Growing up in Pasadena, New Year's Day was all about the Roses.

Although I rarely watch the parade on TV, I generally honor the spirit of the day,..

That's what the daughter of LA Times columnist Sandy Banks said, in true Hollywood fashion, about snow after a family trip back east for Christmas. I, a native Californian, mostly agree.

There’s a lot of pushback right now about the phrase “thoughts and prayers.” I get it. Thoughts and prayers are not a substitute for action, but they are a prelude to it. They are a chance to process - to cry, to talk, to listen. They are a time to build insight and understanding.

It's always fun to weave something special - especially if I know the person I'm weaving for.

My friend Kevin asked me to weave a shawl for his wife Margaret for their 30th wedding anniversary. Thirty years! I was at their wedding - I couldn't possibly be that old!

In 1867, the women's suffrage movement targeted the progressive(!) state of Kansas for an amendment for women's suffrage in that state.

My grandmother - like pretty much every other woman in my family - was one to speak her mind. I imagine it was because speaking at all was very difficult for her. Born without a palate, it was a miracle she survived, let alone learned to speak - which she did through sheer persistence.

This was going to be a blog about how long it took - how much persistence was needed - before women won the right to vote in this country. Indeed, the early 19th century suffragists were literally not allowed to speak for themselves - there were laws against women speaking in public! I'll publish that blog another day.

On January 21st I marched with my friend Laurie, her mom Lillian, and several hundred thousand of our closest friends, in a sea of pink. It was an exciting and uplifting experience. All told, around the world, millions of women, men and children marched.

“How long did it take you to make this?”

This is a question dreaded by most artists and craftsmen. Because this isn’t really the question that is being asked. Frequently, what the questioner really wants to know is …

It seemed odd to be weaving vestments on this day when all of the altars are stripped bare.  Tomorrow they will be ablaze with white, but today, surrounded by vigilants in silent prayer, the altars - wood for the cross or stone for the tomb - are not softened with any fabric.  

The most beautiful rainbows I ever saw were at Bryce Canyon National Park. My family was camping during the summer monsoon season. Most days the afternoon thunder showers would provide welcome relief from the heat of the day. But this day the rain started early and kept on steadily.

This is one of my favorite things in the world - a freshly dressed loom, ready for weaving to start.

This is a world full of possibilities - innumerable possibilities (though not, as my mathematician husband reminds me, not ‘nearly infinite’). A tabula rasa.

My first exposure to the story of Noah and the flood was in first grade Sunday School. I don’t recall the exact details, but I’m fairly sure it included flannel animals going two by two into a flannel-graph ark. What I do remember clearly is the end of the story. The teacher told us how God put a rainbow in the sky as a promise that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood.

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain on the roof. This has always been a magical sound, and after years of drought, a most welcome one. Eventually the sound ebbed. I got up to boil water for a cup of tea.

I just cut a project off the loom - a wool scarf for my husband Bruce. I’m done weaving - but I’m not finished!

A Sunday, pretty much like all others. A new day, a new week, a new year. Full of possibilities.