White Hen Walkabout Potholder

I was bringing the breakfast dishes into the kitchen, when I looked a the linen napkins that Kathy sent me.  Two of them on top of the box of fabric on the dining room chair in the corner of the room.

The green fabric had black and white chickens marching around on it.  Then I found my self repeating the words “White Hen Walkabout” and I knew what I’d be doing today.

I needed a break from making dryer balls and selling and shipping my wool.  I needed to get back into my studio, at least for a day.

The sun was with me, warming up my studio even before I turned on the heat.

I don’t know where White Hen went when she disappeared for five day.  But she did come back and that seems like a little miracle to me.

I think of her time away as a journey, no doubt a difficult one.   Like one of the Greek goddesses descending into the underworld and returning wiser.

But we don’t have to be a goddess in an ancient myth to understand the descent into darkness that can happen to any of us.  There is something to be learned in that place, a transformation that might feel like or actually be magic.

And something to bring back into the light when we journey back.

I didn’t realize how much White Hen had become a symbol of that journey to me until the words White Hen’s Walkabout, popped into my head this morning.

I made a few White Hen Walkabout Potholders today and will make a few more after I get my dryer balls in the mail.