Today’s shared stories come from Alison Yule and Brandy Walker.
Alison Yule
I was 6 when I realised that fabric could be constructed – my sister, seven years older than me, came home from school with a small piece of hand woven fabric. From the moment my parents gave me my first loom (when I was eight) all I’ve wanted to do is weave. I was lucky to go to the same school as my sister and obtained an “O” and “A” level in Craft, Design and Practice – Weaving. I didn’t got to Art College as I’d originally planned, but I did leave school with a 4 shaft table loom on which I wove fabric for myself, friends and family.
Over the years I’ve had a number of different jobs, but weaving has always been there keeping me grounded. In 2002 I want to Bradford Collage, taking an HNC in Hand Woven Textile Design and when I graduated in 2004 I won two awards from Bradford Textile Society. The awards gave me the impetus to set up my own business in designing and hand weaving bespoke fabrics for interiors and fashion. A large part of the attraction of weaving is its sustainability, using mill ends, very little fuel and water – just for a little dyeing and the finishing process.
Weaving has been with me for such a long time, bound up with my life, as a hobby, as a profession, as a job. When I’ve had difficulties in life, weaving has been what’s “glued” my life together, keeping me grounded so that problems could be sorted. If I couldn’t weave my life would not be my life! I’d lose the stabilising force that it’s become and would have to find something to replace its influence, but what I don’t know!
In a nut shell “doing what I love” means happiness, fulfilment, making things with love, sharing what I love and enthusing others with it, being passionate about it and being the best I can be!
In 2009 a life changing event happened. My husband of nearly 25 years died and I soon realised that all my working life I’d been taking care of people – family, people in my keep-fit classes – and I suddenly felt I needed to take care of me. This was going to be my time! I enrolled on the Bradford course and haven’t looked back. Occasionally I’ve wobbled – I felt I couldn’t go and seek out clients while my Mum was ill and needed my sister and I. I couldn’t go and seek out new clients while my youngest daughter was at school, etc. Now I’ve no excuses. My daughter is an independent woman at university. I’ve found a new life partner, a new home in a new area and life is good!
I don’t regret anything in my life. It’s been full of weaving, spinning and dyeing, I’ve taught lots of people new skills that have opened their lives to new experiences. I’ve had high praise for my work and I’ve loved every minute of it! My big plan? To have work in permanent collections or in the home of someone famous! Oh, and earn a little more money so that we can go on holiday!
[All images courtesy of Alison Yule.]
Find out more about Alison on her website here.
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Brandy Walker
A couple of years ago, I had a tear-filled episode on my drive home from school. I felt God was calling me to be a pastor. This was before the other tear-filled moment where I realized that men and women are equal. So you can imagine the pickle I was in. How was I supposed to pastor a congregation if I wasn’t even a spiritual head in my own household?
Everything I learned about what it means to be a woman is socially constructed.
I didn’t know it at the time, but those two episodes would deeply shape who I am now and how I run my budding business. I don’t talk a lot about gender on my blog. I have used feminine pronouns in reference to God, siting that divinity is much larger than a gendered perspective and saying “she” instead of “he” wakes up my brain and reminds me of that.
In my writing, and in life, I talk a lot about the restoration of shalom on earth. Which makes people think I’m Jewish. A lovely thought, but I’m not. At the same time, I find it more and more difficult to call myself Christian. Not because I don’t believe in Jesus, he’s wonderful. But, Christianity is a loaded term. It’s become a kind of weapon, also loaded. And it gives me the runs.
I believe, like many other people, that the Christian religion has reached a crossroads, not unlike the Great Reformation of Martin Luther’s time. Some have called it the Great Emergence and there are many people, more wise than I who would be a better resource on that topic. For me personally, it’s relevant because if I hadn’t found out about it, I might have left the faith entirely. Also, it’s helped me re-frame the word pastor, for which a new definition is long overdue.
When you hear words like “pastor” or “Christian” or “sermon”, do you think “fresh”, “enlightened”, “open-minded and accepting”, “passionately loving toward people and the earth”? No? I want to help change that.
That’s what I love. And what I’m doing. With blog posts about placenta pills and dreaming big. With public speaking and spoken word. And with a new offering called Shalom Sessions where I help people dig into what they are passionate about and what comes easy to them and then sift through their gems to create a custom compass to guide them to the next right step.
Because your dreams will save you. And you will save the world.
And that’s how I’m restoring shalom on my little plot of earth. By helping people realize and fulfill their dreams.
And my big dream? Besides getting paid to write and speak and guiding people into their big, vivacious dreams: A safehouse. For those who have survived human trafficking or abusive relationships or addictions or all three. My husband and I want to build a cafe that has cupcakes, fair trade coffee, and t-shirts on the menu with free wi-fi so that people can come and eat and read and play. And, part of the income from our shop will help to fund our safehouse.
But for now, I am more than content to write and speak, and offer Shalom to anyone wanting to explore what it means to fully live.
Today I conducted my first paid Shalom Session. Recounting how it went to my husband, my 10-year-old chimed in, “Oh wow, you just got paid to do what you love?”
Why, yes. Yes, I did.
[Images courtesy of Brandy Walker.]
Find out more about Brandy on her blog or connect on Facebook or Twitter @brandyglows
