A Women's Gathering

Do you know that feeling you get when you have been twirling around and around, trying to keep your focus on one spot on the wall... then you stop, your eyes twitch, your body rotates to find it's gravitational pull, and the room feels like it is spinning around you. That is how I am feeling today...The past month has been such a whirlwind of activity, and now I am sitting down to try and process it all. I started this post a while ago and I am now trying to finish it before I forget so much of what I learned.
A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of spending time with eight other amazing women in a beautiful 1700's house in New Hampshire. My friend was thoughtful enough to organize this weekend where we would come together, eat, pray, and love....ha ha...no, really, we did do all that, but we also talked some serious feminine theology and many of the issues surrounding that. We discussed the book by Sue Monk Kidd The Dance of the Dissident Daughter. It is a great book and I highly recommend it. A couple of other books discussed were caretakers of our common house by carol lakey hess and she who is by elizabeth johnson.
Our discussions centered around our view of ourselves as women in relationship to our mothers, our churches, our spirituality, our society and our families. There were times when we yelled in frustration, cried in grief, laughed with joy and sat in silence in awe of the beauty of ourselves, our oneness, of creation, and our Creator Mother God.
Recognizing our connection to each other as women, and to nature brings me so much hope and joy as I raise my three beautiful daughters. There is a hope that they may not know the pain of victimization, of inferiority, of inequality. There is hope that even if they do, that they will know their Mother God in a much different light than how most of us were raised.
There is hope in this community of women who are committed to resistance. And a hope that even in our weak moments, we have the strong arms of each other to lift us up.


I have to say that I am not a snow person at all. I have even been trying to talk Chris into moving to Florida lately. But, I absolutely loved being at Caren's house. It is so beautiful to look out the windows and see never ending hills of snow.
Caren's daughter "little C" gave us a short visit on Saturday and helped us make a yummy lunch with pickles. She entertained us with her smart little sayings and her fancy shoes.

I am really hoping to do another one of these gatherings soon. I am so blessed to be a part of a group of inspirational women like this. Thanks ladies!! (and a special thanks to andrea and cheryl for the pictures since i forgot my darn camera for the weekend!!)