One evening my dear friend & mentor, Kobun Chino Rosho, asked me: “Where do you come from?” I answered, “I‘m, not sure.“ He responded rather fiercely, “If you don’t know where you come from, how do you know where you’re gong?” When I asked him if he knew, he said “Yes. Haven’t you heard of the Lost Lineages?” When I replied, “No, is that where I’m from?“ he said, “Yes, somewhere very ancient, feminine & Earth-based.

Considered by collectors and museum professionals as one of the best Navajo basket weavers, Elsie Stone Holiday weaves sumac strips gathered from along the waterways of Utah and New Mexico using her natural, intuitive creativity and the skills passed down from her ancestors.

Once and forever, when time was a whisper, the Niłchʼi Dineʼé (air spirit people) lived in the realm of the first world. This first world, the dark world, floated like an island surrounded by water. The air spirit people were mist people, insect people. Ants, dragonflies, locusts and beetles lived among them in a shadowy existence. Like the alchemist’s prima materia, the dark world swirled with the chaos of infinite possibility...

…I see the culmination of this journey as a return to my origins. The early, uninjured state of self. Curiosity, love and creativity find me again. We can abandon our very self but the indelible soul can be reclaimed. I dare to wonder if all destinations lead back to our origins, a place of wholeness.

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Once and forever, in fact before time, the heart of the universe was singular and all alone. There was no thing—no matter, no color, no shape—just the formless expanse of infinite bliss. Without form, it was unbound. Beyond movement and measure and sound. No limitations and no constraints, the heart of the universe was absolutely free...