Strands

Emma, a 70-year-old minister's wife, is led on a quest to uncover long-lost strands of her identity. This story is about resolution of the age-old conflict (particularly for women) between living a life for oneself and living a life for others. The story begins just after Emma's surprise 70th birthday party, when she suddenly confronts a childhood self she has spent decades repressing. Her cousin Diana, the last living relative in Emma's generation from her biological family (Emma was adopted at age 6) comes to the U.S. from Ireland to attend. On Diana's invitation, Emma suddenly leaves behind her husband of 47 years, her home and her carefully manicured sense of who she is to attend a one-month weaving course in Ireland. The course, unforeseen visits by the spirits of her biological mother and grandmother, and her daughter Lucy's visit, all give Emma a chance to untangle layers of conflict and misunderstanding and re-weave these strands into a wholly different material that transforms her life and by extension, the world. Readers witness what happens when the heroine does not impose her will on the world, but is open enough to allow the stories of women ancestors to change and reveal her. This heroine's journey ends not in polarization, conquering, and establishing superiority but in collaboration, connectedness and peaceful coexistence of differences. This multi-layered story is at once the story of a particular woman and her family, their conflicts and secrets, and a story of Women in patriarchal society. And lastly, Strands is a story about the absolute necessity of women's wisdom to the possibility of weaving a peaceful world. If we can answer the questions that women ask, we will revolutionize the world.