Welcome to
Family Roots
Family Roots is where I am bringing the threads of my life together into an ecosystem of offerings: art you can hold, words that tell the truth, and space to hear yourself more clearly during times of change.
I’m Lindsay. I am an elder in the making, a rooted family member and community member An artist and writer, a healer/coach/midwife of voices. The longer I live, the shorter life feels. I try to not be bothered by the small things. I aim to take life just seriously enough. Embrace the chaos, lead with grace.
After spending years on the edges of the rat race, I am actively stepping off the track. Or leaping from the cliff is more what it feels like! Either way, I am seeking to prioritize my values and show up for this one life I am lucky enough to have.
I matter. You matter.
The relationship matters.
The journey so far.
I first created Family Roots in 2005. Dyeing yarn, spinning, knitting, and designing helped support my family while raising my children. Long before I became a nurse, making was part of how I cared for people.
I became a nurse in 2020 and have worked in civilian and military emergency departments ever since. Before nursing, I cared for people in their homes, skilled nursing facilities, and memory care.
I know what it means to pour and pour from a huge heart and bleed myself at the altar of service. I have spent much of my life trying to keep everyone and everything around me tended and alive, while accepting or asking for very little in return.
Those experiences changed the questions I was asking.
What relationships deserve our energy and participation? How do we give and receive care? What happens when we begin telling ourselves the truth about the lives we are living?
These questions pointed me back to knitting, as ruptures in my life always have. Remembering that I am an artist was like a body returning to breathing after a long held breath.
Some of the yarn in my knit-wear art in my shop was spun between ER shifts during the pandemic. Some came into being during other seasons of motherhood, grief, travel, and change. Each bit carries a story.
Thank you for stopping by and taking part in the story.
A life in relationship
I see the world through an animist lens, and relationship with the living world runs through everything I make and offer.
We belong to this world. Our relationships with the earth, with other people, with our work, and with ourselves deserve our attention.
Making gives that attention a tangible form. I create fiber pieces intended to be worn, cherished, and passed along, and share patterns so other people can bring their own work into being.
Photography is another way I pay attention. The photographs here are glimpses of the world as I encounter it—part of the story I want to share.
My writing follows the questions that meet me in healthcare, family, grief, spirituality, art, and everyday life. I’m also writing a memoir about becoming a nurse during a pandemic and the life that unfolded around it.
In coaching, we make room to slow down, tell the truth about what is happening, and explore what belongs to you. My work is to help create a space where you can hear yourself more clearly and begin making choices from greater self-trust.
Art, words, care, and relationship. These are the offerings taking shape here.
You are welcome to read, explore the things I make, or consider working with me.
I’m glad you found your way here.
Family Roots · Lindsay Baker