Emma, a 70-year-old minister's wife, is led on a quest to uncover long-lost strands of her identity. This story is about resolution of the age-old conflict (particularly for women) between living a life for oneself and living a life for others. The story begins just after Emma's surprise 70th birthday party, when she suddenly confronts a childhood self she has spent decades repressing. Her cousin Diana, the last living relative in Emma's generation from her biological family (Emma was adopted at age 6) comes to the U.S. from Ireland to attend. On Diana's invitation, Emma suddenly leaves behind her husband of 47 years, her home and her carefully manicured sense of who she is to attend a one-month weaving course in Ireland. The course, unforeseen visits by the spirits of her biological mother and grandmother, and her daughter Lucy's visit, all give Emma a chance to untangle layers of conflict and misunderstanding and re-weave these strands into a wholly different material that transforms her life and by extension, the world. Readers witness what happens when the heroine does not impose her will on the world, but is open enough to allow the stories of women ancestors to change and reveal her. This heroine's journey ends not in polarization, conquering, and establishing superiority but in collaboration, connectedness and peaceful coexistence of differences. This multi-layered story is at once the story of a particular woman and her family, their conflicts and secrets, and a story of Women in patriarchal society. And lastly, Strands is a story about the absolute necessity of women's wisdom to the possibility of weaving a peaceful world. If we can answer the questions that women ask, we will revolutionize the world.
About the Author: Elise's experience and interests lie in psychology, philosophy, art, sound healing, mediation, diversity/political work. Her training includes BA (Phi Beta Kappa) in psychology from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio; Paralegal Certificate from the Institute for Paralegal Studies in Philadelphia; and MA (with honors) in philosophy with a Certificate for Teaching Critical Thinking from San Francisco State University. She is currently enrolled in the Sound, Voice and Music Healing Certificate program at California Institute of Integral Studies. S. Elise Peeples is the author of 1.) The Emperor Has A Body: Body-Politics in the Between (Javelina Books: Tucson, Arizona, 1998) in which she developed her own ethical foundations using what she termed the "Philosophy of the Between." and 2.) Co-Author and Co-editor of The Spiral: A Workbook (Minding the Body, Inc., Berkeley, CA, 2000), a non-linear, collaborative effort of eight women authors from different backgrounds and interests, designed as a springboard for launching groups of people into the Between-accessing vitality, creativity and cohesiveness. Peeples is the Executive Director of Art Between Us, Inc. (ArtBetweenUs.org) which specializes in exploring and teaching skills of collaboration through art; a didgeridoo teacher and sound healer (SoundRivers.net), a mediator with 20 years experience; a fiction and non-fiction writer; and a Board member of the Women's Daytime Drop-in Center, a Berkeley non-profit serving homeless women and children. Elise lives with her poet/writer husband Adam David Miller and her cat Tito in Berkeley, California.