The Wandering Cloth is an ecospiritual lifestyle blog for the people of Chicagoland, edited by Ashley Davila and Eduardo Davila, written by many friends and strangers. Consider this blog an offering of thanks for the gifts of this land, from the diverse people who live here.
Each author shares from their personal connection to the land in a posture of gratitude. By listening to each other’s voices and stories, we expand our own imagination for relationship with the natural world.
Together, we are deepening our connection with the land where we live: with each other, with the many other beings and elements that make up the natural world, and with the divine creator. And by learning from others to grow in belonging to the natural world of Chicagoland, we bring healing to our human selves, our communities, and the ecosystems we participate in.
FAQ
What does the name Wandering Cloth mean?
All that is real and good is sourced in love. The role of a priest (“the cloth”) is to offer the gifts of earth (grain and grapes), reimagined by human culture (bread and wine), back to God in thanks and praise. The community invites the Creator to bless those gifts and share in their joy, and then they distribute the meal to everyone around. A love feast! If you’re human, you can have the role of a priest. What gifts have you noticed around you?
The people who followed Jesus Christ in the ancient stories (“the wandering”) didn’t always know where he was going. Often, they wandered with him across wild places and ended up far from a familiar meal at home. In unfamiliar territory and uncertain circumstances, their food and their rest came from the source of love. Following wisdom today might feel like wandering too. Now we see her in one place; now we lose sight and scan the horizon again. She’s further up and further in, and we must leave behind the familiar to answer her call into the real and good ahead.
What does it take to carve out a home in unfamiliar places, or stability in uncertain times? The gifts of the earth are popping up even in the most unlovely places: between the cracks in our sidewalks, in church parking lots, among fields of corn and soybeans. We couldn’t stop those earthly gifts if we tried, but we can grimly overlook them, or shut them out. To find a home in the wandering, we must learn to see what is real and good around us, what is sourced in love.
When we lift up those small gifts in thanks, the creator will bless them, and we’ll share them from hand to hand, until we’re all feeling nourished. If the Wandering Cloth is an offering of thanks for the gifts of this land, from the diverse people who live here, what blessings are on their way?
What makes the Wandering Cloth ecospiritual?
The Wandering Cloth is an ecospiritual lifestyle blog for the people of Chicagoland. The prefix “eco” is related to the Greek word oikos, referring to a home or a dwelling place. (Anyone remember home ec?) Ecospirituality brings our spirituality home: to our physical bodies, to our dwelling places, to our communities, to our environment. To foster cultural and ecological healing, our spirituality must return to the earth, and to our bodies, where God dwells with us.
Many faiths, churches, and religious institutions have turned spirituality into something separate from the real world and our real bodies. Much doctrine and preaching has had little bearing on the lives we actually live. And sadly, it’s easier to exploit the earth, and to exploit people, when we can’t track the practical and physical ramifications of what is being said and done in God’s name. Let’s have a spirituality we can trace in the real world.
What does our spirituality have to do with salamanders, or supermarkets, or solar panels? If we can work it out, there is much joy (and sorrow) to be had. We gain an old-and-new depth to our humanity when we can feel the state of the land in our bodies—when our chest bursts in celebration of our sister earth’s lively abundance, and when our belly clinches in grief for where she is torn and diseased. We cannot be anywhere else but here, and the divine creator is right here with us. Let’s have a spirituality we can trace in the real world.
What does the Wandering Cloth have to do with Chicagoland?
The Wandering Cloth is an ecospiritual lifestyle blog for the people of Chicagoland. Not many of us are indigenous to this land. Most of us go about our lives from supermarket to digital marketplace, rarely making meaningful contact with the land where we live. The land of Chicago is not all well. Healthy ecosystems that support diverse life, even human life, are diminishing. We are not all well. Healthy communities that support diverse life, our actual lives, are vanishing. We live in our heads and through screens, and our bodies and the land suffer. But we can become native to this land, a kind of second birth.
Yes, we are invited to become native to Chicagoland. At the Wandering Cloth, we want to imagine together what that newly native life can be like for a diverse people. Our content focuses on personal stories from real people here, about experiences we’ve had here, activities that have taken place here, goods and art that are made here, places we’ve explored here, problems we’re working to solve here, and organizations and businesses that do good work here, just to sketch some abstract possibilities. What kind of ecospiritual life can a person in Chicagoland have? Let’s expand our imaginations together!
What topics can the Wandering Cloth cover?
The Wandering Cloth is an ecospiritual lifestyle blog for the people of Chicagoland. We want to feature diverse voices sharing real stories of living in loving relationship with the land of Chicago. We are inviting everyone! Young and old, straight and queer, spiritual and secular, right and left, mystic and scientist, Black and white, homesteader and professional, friend and stranger. If we didn’t mention you, O person of peace, we want you to join us!
We focus on topics that can bring us together in thankfulness and love for the land where we live. Each person has a unique way of connecting with the natural world. We want to expand the possibilities for others by sharing the personal and specific ways each of us do this. Topics can be as diverse as the people of Chicagoland. Here are a few ideas:
- Experiences in favorite natural spot
- Personal experiments in reducing waste
- Recipes for enjoying wild foods
- Small-space gardening tips
- Stories of businesses and organizations doing good in the land
- Profiles of a beloved native critter or plant
- Songs, poetry, prayers, or visual art created in response to the land
But we hope you’ll bring your unique take! What gifts have you noticed here? How do you receive the gifts of the land where you live (no matter how small)? How do you return the love you’ve received? Let’s talk about something good in the land of Chicago! But let it be real. Let it be personal. Let it be an act of thanksgiving.
How can I contribute to the Wandering Cloth?
Read more about pitches and submissions here.
Is the Wandering Cloth Christian, or does it have a statement of belief?
The Wandering Cloth is intended to platform the voice of anyone who has a relationship with the natural world of Chicagoland, no matter their particular spirituality. Diverse spiritualities and faiths are invited here. Proselytizing isn’t. But you’re not crazy: yes, the editors are Christians, and they write from their unique perspective—they just hope you will feel welcome to write from yours too!