Our seventh week of observing chalica invites us to reflect on the interdependent web. The way that things work in an interdependent system is a profound and counterintuitive thing to experience.

As you observe the web this week and consider how to honor our place within interdependence, you might use these words to light your chalice from Li Kynvi:

This chalice is for the living, the changing, the becoming.
This chalice is for losing the script of your life,the chapters about who you are
in other people’s stories.
This chalice is for the lost GPS that was supposed to show you how to get
where they expected you to go.
This chalice is for skipping the directions, coloring outside the lines,
painting—not by number—but by silence, by wild abandon,
with a brush you made yourself from light deep inside.
Startling. Vivid.
A new voice that already knows you.
Finally, a true story.

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The best way for anyone to understand how webs work is to get our hands on and in them. This can be something as simple as a game of cat’s cradle, facilitated by some spare yarn. But if you are observing with all ages of family members, a fun thing to do is to create a sticky web in a doorway at home, using painter’s tape or masking tape. We often connect webs with Halloween and the idea of something creepy and crawly. But webs are also examples of connection. If you make a sticky web in a door, what kinds of connections can you imagine while your web is coming together?

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Often, when looking for activities for kids, we share coloring pages. They are easy and inviting for kids who are keeping busy––something light to engage young minds. But it turns out that adults love coloring too, and its a wonderfully meditative way to engage older minds too. And webs are very intricate things to color, alongside perhaps a useful avatar for webs, a spider––if you like to channel your inner-self with some coloring, whatever your age is, this is a good week to meditate on the image of a web.

Allan T. Georgia, MDiv, MTS, PhD