You are the warp and you weft
It has been said that life is like a tapestry. When I first came across this concept I was confused. A tapestry is a pictorial woven cloth, often hung on a wall to enhance a room or tell a story. So how is that like life? I decided to look into it.
I found two quotes about life being a tapestry. One made me feel insignificant. The other made me feel important.
Elbert Einstein (eminent scientist):
Life is a great tapestry. The individual is only an insignificant thread in an immense and miraculous pattern.
Anita Moorjani (cancer survivor and author of Dying to be Me)
In the tapestry of life, we’re all connected. Each one of us is a gift to those around us helping each other be who we are, weaving a perfect picture together.
Both quotes mention that the result is worth it. Einstein refers to an immense and miraculous pattern and Moorjani to a perfect picture. But how should I see myself? As insignificant (Einstein) or a gift to those around me (Moorjani)? Perhaps I should combine them and acknowledge that I’m an insignificant gift to mankind. That concept kind of works.
I watched an amazing and beautiful videoclip demonstrating the weaving process as it’s done at the Gobelins Manufactory in Paris. Basically, it involves warp and weft. The warp is composed of heavy, vertical, white threads, and the weft is made by thinner, coloured, horizontal threads woven through the warp. It’s a complex undertaking, sometimes spanning years, and always resulting in an incredible work of art.
As I observed the workers in the video weaving the weft through the warp, the question arose that if life is like a tapestry, am I the warp or the weft? Or could I be both? And another question: Am I the weaver or the thread? Or both?
I choose infinite possibilities.
I am the warp and the weft.
Warp is what is (what already exists in the moment), and I’m a part of that.
Weft is what I contribute to the moment — my actions, thoughts, emotions.
And, I am the weaver and the thread.
I am the one who is weaving the weft thread of myself through the warp of what is.
I am gifting a seemingly insignificant thread to an immense and miraculous tapestry.
And so are you.
With love, Marlane
First published on Medium.com/spiritual-secrets
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