Ferns are ancient. They are truly our elders and embody powerful wisdom that can benefit our lives. Every spring, our beloved sword ferns send up spiraling fiddleheads amidst tall green fronds, as the rusty senescence of past growth cascades back down to the soil below. To witness this trilogy of life stages all in one plant – birth, life, and return -- is breathtaking and reassuring. We live in a culture that is still learning how to courageously accept death as part of life. I believe that fern language can help ease our fear of endings, instill trust in the cycles of life, and be a balm to our spirits in times of illness or decline. As such, I created a triptych textile mural that magnifies the poetics of sword fern fronds in three stages. This piece was dedicated and hung in the family dining room at Montage Medical Group’s recently renovated Westland House in Monterey, CA, which has a hospice unit. (Title quote source: Dr. Mary C. Neal’s insight from a near-death experience that helped her navigate the loss of her son).

I also created and donated “thresholder” hospice blankets, and wrote a short end-of-life threshold song to accompany this piece, Unfurl:

Where redwoods rise

Easing into sky

Lay down your bones

exhale

With eyes of owl

Trust the mystery

You know the way 

Take flight

With trust in rain

Clearing every pain

New freedom guides

Your way

Through grace of fern

Spiral in return

Rise into light

Unfurl

Your soul a star

brighter than the sun

in beauty be

at home