Where the Woods Meet the Water

Where the Woods meet the water is the second part of an autobiography by Gila Margolin. Born in London in 1951, she moved to Glasgow at age eleven and went to Glasgow University. Her childhood and this turbulent period in the 60’s are described in her first memoir The Moving Swan, which also narrates the origins of The Little Sisters of Joy, which emerged initially in Provence as a new Catholic community.

Where the Woods meet the water, the title meaning ‘Toronto’ in the Mohawk language, describes the unfolding of this Project for Peace and Reconciliation into a Foundation,  ‘ecumenical,’ in the sense of reaching to the ‘whole inhabited world.’

It describes Gila’s Concerts for Peace and Reconciliation over the last 20 years.

Where the woods meet the water was launched with music on the 19th October 2014 at Lucy Cavendish College in the University of Cambridge to a mixed audience, who participated in the music. 2015 saw the Canadian Launch with music at the George Ignatieff Theatre at Trinity College in Toronto. This city of 172 Nations is considered to be  the global and spiritual heart of The Little Sisters of Joy.

In September 2018, the book was published in French after a vibrant translation by Francoise Barber. The venue for the Launch was the Alliance Francaise de Toronto, where again the audience, from the Jewish, Christian and Native Canadian communities, participated in the songs which accompanied Gila’s life story.

Gila has just published (August 2024) a third memoir called Point of Departure which completes the trilogy. Unlike the narrative style of the first and the diary form of the second, Point of Departure is written in the form of letters to Gila’s mentor, Edith Stein. A Jewish woman from the former Breslau, Edith Stein became a Carmelite nun and died in Auschwitz in August 1942. Gila became aware of Edith in 1988 and took her name when she was received into the Catholic Church in 1989. She remains very present to her, as is evident by the very personal correspondence, which also brings the history of The Little Sisters of Joy up to 2020. 

The covers for Where the Woods meet the Water and Point of Departure were both designed by Anna Bristow, a renowned artist living in Cambridge.

The cover picture for "Where The Woods Meet The Water" is from an original painting by artist Anna Bristow.

The painting is an illustration of the Laurentian Shield.