Currently available | Handwoven tapestry with reclaimed yarn | $400
Narrow Light
In the beginning it was dark.
My core solidified like rock under soil.
My bones grew and grew until they ached.
Until they cried out for me because I didn’t have the air.
Careless compression, I split.
What force would tug so hard on something so fragile?
I quickly formed a terrible hole.
My soul destroyed like scorched earth.
Somehow I held.
The empty space gaping, but not beyond repair.
You carried me,
constructed a window to let in narrow light.
This piece emerged as I was processing the long aftermath of abuse- specifically the emotional shaping that happens when you learn to please, conform, to erase your own needs in order to survive.
The slit at the center of this piece is deliberate. It’s narrow, yes- but it’s light. A place where something breaks through. While weaving, I kept thinking of the windows in Solomon’s temple- “He made narrow windows for the temple” (1 Kings 6:4). Not wide openings. Just enough for light to enter. Just enough to see.
The deep reds and weighty textures reflect pressure, memory, and long-held pain. But through all of it, a path remains. Not one I carved, but one I’ve been shown- grace breaking in through the smallest places.
Narrow Light is about survival, but more than that- it’s about the shift from survival to healing. It’s about finding a way forward when the light is thin but faithful.
This is the sixth tapestry in What Holds, a series about endurance, tenderness, and the presence of God in places we once thought we’re sealed shut.