Hi there,
My name is Maggie Ruth Haaland (she/they) and I am a queer mender, natural dyer, herbalist, and foot bath devotee (and I also love hot dogs). I came to all of these practices via the world of plants, and wanting to find more ways of incorporating their healing and magical properties into our everyday lives. As someone who has moved with chronic illness throughout my adult life, I have come to find the value in slowing down and tending within, to being with what’s right here and offering repair. I believe in softness, rest, and vulnerability and cultivating these things in community.
Some of my dear teachers include Bryonie Wise, Steph Zabel, Katrina Rodabaugh, Jade Allicandro Mace, Tony(a) Lemos, and the local plants, ponds and oceans of Massachusetts. And also, from afar and other dimensions, Mary Oliver, Alok, adrienne maree brown, and John O’Donohue.
"If you get to know Maggie you’ll quickly learn she’s a lover of soup—and spending time learning from and creating alongside them feels cozying up with a bowl of my grandmother’s potato leek. Maggie is one of those rare creative souls whose love of and curiosity for the creative process spills out with such joy and ease that it so naturally stirs up the creativity of others. Whether it’s learning about mending, dyeing, or communing more deeply with plants, Maggie’s workshops are not just about learning a new skill or technique—branching beyond into spaces of mending our relationships to ourselves, others, the natural world, and the beloved objects we wear and use. I’ve learned so much from Maggie and I channel her sense of wonder each time I sit down to mend, with skills I’m so grateful to have learned. Maggie teaches from a spirit of deep gentleness—moving at the pace that feels right, showing up to our practice as we are, welcoming the threads that are asking to be tended to."
- H.L.