Dear Friends ~ Summer brought a small respite from covid restrictions and many were able to visit family and friends, relishing once again seeing our loved ones in person. While planning a get-together with a group of long-cherished women friends, an idea percolated to invite a group of contemporary and historic women to share nuggets of women’s wisdom with you, dear readers, male and female. All are welcome. Come in. Pour a cup of tea or glass of wine, put extra sugar in September lemonade just this once, extend your summer travels and welcome visitors old and new. Pour a libation and toast our inspiring sisters. ~ Mary Ann
Learning to love differently is hard
Love with the hands open, love
With the doors banging on their hinges
The cupboard unlocked, the wind
Roaring and whimpering in the rooms
Rustling the sheets and snapping the blinds
That thwack like rubber bands
In an open palm.
~ Marge Percy from "To Have Without Holding" in THE MOON IS ALWAYS FEMALE
When you get into a tight place,
and everything goes against you
till it seems as if you couldn't hold
on a minute longer, never give up
then, for that's just the place and
time that the tide'll turn.
From the time we are born there is a wildish urge within us that desires our souls lead our lives, for the ego can only understand just so much. Imagine the ego on a permanent and relatively short leash; it can only go so far into the mysteries of life and spirit.
~ Clarissa Pinkola Estés in WOMEN WHO RUN WITH THE WOLVES
See a time for inspiration.
See a time blessed in God’s Love.
See a time given to the children of God.
While you pray see a time...
Never has a time been as this...
{The Holy One} blesses and comforts you and gives you inspiration.
Earth children, sing so sweetly.
~ Janet Hurley with Matthew Fox in PSALMS FROM THE HILLS OF WEST VIRGINIA
All day may I walk.
Through the returning seasons may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk.
With beauty may I walk.
With beauty before me, may I walk.
With beauty behind me, may I walk.
With beauty below me, may I walk.
With beauty all around me, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.
~ From "In beauty may I walk", Traditional Navaho Blessing Way Prayer
