The content of this page will change periodically and will reflect the more fluid, many faceted aspects of our personal stories and hopefully the less formal side of who we are. It will serve as an example of ways we can learn about our stories and share those insights with each other.

This was an exercise we did one afternoon when we were talking together about how to introduce ourselves to the Pathways4Women community. One of us asked “If you could design the cover of a book that told the stories of your life, what would it look like? What color would it be?”

These are our stories.

Linda

Color: For me color is a season of my life kind of thing—like blue for water. I have morphed into somewhat of an Aquarian wanting to be in the water, on the water, or at least near the water at all times. My sense of color has changed over the years. As a child, I think I lived in a world that was unaware of color. As a young mother I got into loud and fun colors mostly expressed in my sometimes very colorful cloths. I love fabric texture and color. In midlife I moved into a lot of black but am moving back into color. I am thinking “splashes” of fun color these days. My book cover would reflect the colors of the different seasons of my life.

Paula

Color: My sense of color is rooted in the many years of my life spent in Eastern Europe. You should see my office with the purple violin against my orange wall and the Lithuanian pottery – purple and yellow. I like all colors—oh—but not pink!!!!  My book cover would be all the vibrant colors of Eastern Europe and not pink.

Katie

Colors: I love color. I have this pile of incredible fabrics from Vietnam with deep rich, colors and unbelievable embroidery. I think we tend to see what we know. When I was in Southeast Asia recently and didn’t know anything about its very different culture – I had to stop and force myself to see the things I didn’t know and wasn’t immediately drawn to. It was surprising and wonderful to focus on the variety of textures, colors, patterns, and techniques.  For me color is a collage of things woven or dyed or embroidered – fabrics that reflect the incredible things that people have done to make their clothing and their everyday life beautiful –it is a wonder. When you pay attention to the color, textiles, fabric of a culture and you absorb it, you look at the world a little differently.  My book cover would be this collage of textures, fibers, and deep rich colors that have made up my life.