r o o t s

This project was born of a conversation with my mom on Easter of 2019. We were talking on my back deck about the hammock in our yard, a traditional two-person macrame style, and how at their home, despite having so many trees they do not have a suitable pair for a hammock.

Then she looked to my hillside of oaks and maples and asked, “how many do you think you could have?”

I immediately replied, “oh, at least 50”.

“When do you think you could do that?” she replied.

“Maybe in a year?” I said.

Throughout the summer I continued to think about the idea of 50 hammocks in my woods and then thought, I could do this as a way to usher in my 40th year, which was in early September. I had to scale back the number of hammocks and people due to simple logistics of organizing that many people and vehicles with our rural location in a short time frame. Also, earlier this year I read a book by Pryia Parker: The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters. I was excited to implement some of the strategies I learned from this book into this event as well.

So I invited friends and family members to join me for this event. In the end, I hung 21 hammocks and had 19 friends and family participate. I added the two extra hammocks for two reasons 1) to hold space for a surprise arrival and 2) to act as a space for those who wanted to come, but were unable to with their schedules/lives.

s c o r e

g a t h e r

4:00 - 4:25

a l o n e | t o g e t h e r

4:30 - 5:10

i n w a r d o p e n n e s s

5:10 - 5:50

r a d i a n t c o n n e c t i o n s

5:50 - 7:15

h o w I g o t o t h e w o o d s

7:15 - 7:30

#thehammockproject #alonetogether

Rhonda Willers

Rhonda Willers