2013--"How Could Anyone... "
I created this clip for a course on Women in Ministry which I completed in 2013. The assignments I created for that course are old and sometimes don’t show up in my system, but behave more like ghosts, now appearing and then vanishing. This is one of them. It is a clip I made for the class to hold all the people of the world who are made by the world to feel less than beautiful. The images are fuzzy, but such was my technology’s capacity at the time. Yet the heart of the message is clear. It likely went with my preparation for a women’s liturgy, for which I will place a poem that I captured in the preparation.
It was during this Spring Semester that I experienced a miscarraige. I was 47. I will never forget the kindness of my professor Francine Cardman, who took me by the hand and gave me the kind of support I was not receiving at home.
This is what I looked like then. I grow wistful when I see her, knowing what she was going through, what she tried so hard to walk through in a way that could keep everyone in her family alive and intact.
Thousand Hands Lyrics:
“As long as you are kind and there is love in your heart A thousand hands will naturally come to your aid As long as you are kind and there is love in your heart You will reach out with a thousand hands to help others”
Samsara(2011)set to Bonnie Jo Hunt, Michael Stearns, Ron Sunsinger -
With Love, Writing With Water 💧 —Kelly Verret
Kelly, the way this old class artifact resurfaced feels inseparable from the woman you were when you made it: carrying a miscarriage, trying to hold a family together, and still creating something meant to affirm people who had been taught to feel less beautiful. The image of Francine Cardman taking your hand gives the memory a human center, a moment of care that remained legible thirteen years later. Seeing your younger self now with compassion for what she was carrying gives the recovered work another layer of witness. Grateful for the way you allowed the artifact, the loss, the kindness, and the woman you were then to return together.
You’ve been through a very difficult experience. But there are people out there who are willing to lend a helping hand. I think that’s a small but happy thing, and I’m grateful that you shared your story with us.✨