The Way of the Braid

Imagine your life as a loom shrouded in countless threads. 

Threads tossed here, set aside there. Life is messy, and the threads you pick up go a long way in dictating your path, shaping your life.

Choose wisely.

I once dealt with my threads individually, haphazardly, sometimes obsessively. I paid more attention to what I thought I should do rather than what I really wanted to do. 

I’m not alone in this, I think. 

And we wonder why nothing holds.

But that was before the beautiful madness of this year, in which I’ve discovered a new approach to handling the Loom of You that’s serving me so very well.

I’ve discovered braiding, weaving the threads of your life together into a cohesive whole, a tapestry entirely of your own choosing—or if you prefer, a piece of rope.

You see, most people live in silos. 

They have their “work self,” “gym self,” “creative self,” “family self,” and those selves barely talk to each other. Roommates who never speak, barely knowing each other’s names.

Instead of siloing, braiding means letting the strands overlap and join together.

So I treat everything I spend time on as different tongues of the same flame. 

To work on one is to work on the other.

The gym, garden, and forest are where I chew on writing and art ideas. While lifting, tending, and walking, I’m singing under my breath, humming, doing breathwork.

The gym settles my creative energy, giving me more focus when I write. The garden gives me peace, respite. The forest guides and soothes through stillness. 

Driving sharpens my edges, infuses more awareness into my body.

Song practice is where the braid knots. Where the gym gives stamina and strength. Where the forest offers stillness, the garden brings calm, and driving brings charge.

And so at the braid of the knot, you have my voice.

A single thread is fragile. 

But braid enough threads and you get a rope strong enough to tow a mountain.

In myth, they say that those who braid cannot be broken. 

When pulled, they tighten. When twisted, they hold. When tested, they laugh.

They’re stronger, steadier, simpler.

Thus is the Way of the Braid.

With love from the forest,

~ Alexander