Womanspace

Reflections

**From the Winter 2007 issue of woman'Spirit:**

TRUST THE PATH...
The wonderful thing about the Labyrinth is the way the path meanders like a river following the mysterious patterns of Sacred Geometry. The path circles around the center and then turns back the way it came, then turns again. As we walk a Labyrinth with others sometimes the path swings us far apart to opposite sides, we seem to move in opposite directions, then side-by-side in parallel, then we are moved apart again. So it is in life. Our paths bring us together then send us apart. This year we have experienced this profoundly among the woman’Space Associates. First, Jeri Malone found her path leading her away from involvement as an Associate with woman’Space even as she will contiinue to serve in assisting us with our mailing lists.

The happy news for woman’Space is that our long-time friend Cyndi Grewe has agreed to become a woman’Space Associate. Those of you who know Cyndi know the rich gifts she brings of creativity, generosity and grounded wisdom. We are joy-filled to have her with us.

This past summer Rose Dowling was elected President of her Community of Franciscan Sisters of Mary, a role that will demand a shift in her commitments in all areas of her life. Rose intends to remain fully involved with woman’Space even as she leads the FSMs into a new vision for their community.

Mary continues to deepen her work with Interplay and do the leadership training she has been involved with for the last few years. Marilyn continues to offer massage and Rosen Method treatments. I, Wendy, have been exploring the work of Soulcraft with Animas Valley Institute as this group weaves together wilderness experiences with depth psychology taking me to Tennessee and twice to the Grand Tetons of Wyoming. I continue to offer spiritual direction and to facilitate groups using writing as a vehicle for spiritual discovery.

One day this summer I found myself alone and lost in the rain in a clearing surrounded by the dense forest of Wyoming. Narrow wild animal trails led off in all directions and I had no sense of which one I needed to lead me home. Blindly I turned to retrace my steps thinking I was headed back the way I’d come. Suddenly I found myself not back but onward to my goal. The path had mysteriously found me and led me where I needed to be. And so the Labyrinth leads us together for a time, then apart again, all the while we move in our own sacred circuits toward the Divine Center that draws us to Itself. Trust the Path, the Labryinth seems to say to us. Trust the Path.

Abundant blessings in the New Year -from Wendy Sarno

Reflections on a Medieval Mystic

From Mary Jordan
Published in the Fall 2005 issue of woman'Spirit

I am very drawn to the mysticism of Mechtild of Magdeburg, the 13th Century noble woman who grew up in Germany in privileged surroundings, and at age 23 joined an extraordinary group of
women known as the Beguines. This was not a religious order but a lay movement of women from among the common folk , who cared for the sick and the poor.

It is out of this experience that she writes:

For compassion comforts the sad
Heals the wounded
And gladdens the hearts
Of all who come to her.

Each of us who seeks compassion
And calls upon compassion resolutely
Conquers the sorrow and depression
That lie in our heart.

Even though Mechtild ministered to the sick and the needy amid the harsh realities of medieval poverty, there is nothing morbid or depressing about her spirituality. On the contrary, her
writings are full of light, love and joy. In fact the title she gives her mystical work is:
THE FLOWING LIGHT OF THE GODHEAD

Her description of the spiritual journey is not about climbing the spiritual ladder but rather it is a movement of sinking, circling and flowing.

Do you wish to know my meaning?
Then lie down in the Fire
See and taste the Flowing Godhead
Through your being.
Feel the Holy Spirit moving and compelling you
Within the flowing Fire and Light of God.

As someone who loves to dance, I am touched by the way she draws on her experience of dancing to reveal some dynamic and delightful images of her relationship with God.

I cannot dance, O Lord unless you lead me.
If you will , that I leap joyfully;
Then you must be the first to dance and to sing!
Then, only then will I leap for love.
Then will I soar from love to knowledge;
From knowledge to fruition;
From fruition to beyond all human sense
And there I will remain and circle for evermore.

When God leads, then and only then can she leap and soar and circle in that dance of love.

This 13th Century woman even dares to describe God as her 'playmate'

"I, God am your playmate!
I will lead the child in you
In wonderful ways
For I have chosen you."

Reflections on Women's Spirituality

from Marilyn Davis
published in the Spring 2005 issue of women'Spirit

Women's Spirituality emphasizes relationships - ourselves with the Divine, with others, and with all of creation. It teaches us that all of creation is worthy of love, care and respect. It is not adversarial or competitive, but collaborative and participatory, seeking only win-win situations for all human beings as well as nature. The spirituality from the past tended to be rigid, legalistic, private, and domineering especially toward women, children, minorities, and the environment.

Women's spirituality sees all human beings and creation as equal. We respect the beliefs and cultures of all peoples, and for the creativity of the Divine in the gifts of every created being. We work for issues of justice that promote equal opportunities for all groups of people regardless of gender,

race, ethnic origin or economic status. It urges us to preserve all species of plant and animal life, respecting and conserving the earth. Ecofeminism is relatively new area of study which sees the connection between the oppression of women and minorities and the disregard and willful devastation of the environment.

Women's spirituality is best illustrated by a circle. Each point on the circle is equidistant from the center; there is no hierarchy, no higher or lower on the rungs of a social and/ or political ladder. In our relationships with others, we have no hidden agenda, only openness, simplicity, acceptance, and unconditional love.

We Play to the Extent that We Are Held

from Jeri Malone
published in the Fall 2004 issue of woman'Spirit

I've been asked to say a little about myself and my journey this past year that took me to the Sophia Center in the Oakland hills overlooking beautiful San Francisco Bay. It was a rich and full experience that called me to be my authentic self and to become part of a vibrant community who shared their wisdom stories, alongside the unfolding story of the universe and to reflect on how each of us might bring our gifts to the healing of our beautiful planet.

What I can say about my experience is what a gift it was to sit in a circle where teacher and student alike were learning from each other, where I met in a wisdom circle Friday mornings to respond to deep personal questions and share from my own experience in an affirming atmosphere where tears were welcome and bonding was rich. I was able to be in a circle with women as far away as New Zealand, Newfoundland, Scotland, Korea, Japan, Canada and as close as Pennsylvania, Arizona, Ohio and California.

"The whole purpose of the earth community is to feel ourselves being deeply held." I heard these words while I was at Sophia attending the Summer Institute and was deeply drawn to find out more. So my journey in California lead me to places inside myself that were asking to be held and allowing myself to be held and embraced by all that I was experiencing outside of me, the sounds of the ocean, the cool breezes, the radiance of the night sky, the flight of birds, the mother whale with her calf at Point Reyes National Seashore starting the 6,000 mile migration to Alaska, the fragrance and beauty of roses that bloomed all year, and the lovely wisteria bush next to the rose garden that continued to call me into her loveliness. Yes, I couldn't help but fall in love with Earth!

Painting as spontaneous expression, body wisdom, dream work, unforgotten wisdom, dance and ancestral stories were all part of the creative processes calling me to listen to my personal story and the story of my ancestors. The unexpected surprise was to be in my mother's bioregion of San Francisco and the Bay Area and to explore where she grew up and lived. Her vitality and love of life came alive for me and I became more alive with the goodness and beauty surrounding me in San Francisco, Yosemite, Muir Woods and the Mendicino coast. I experienced the earth as alive, my classmates alive--yes, it's true. We're all one! We're all called to the great cosmic belonging to ourselves, to each other and to the incredible generosity and radiance of the universe.

(Jeri spent nine months pursuing a Masters Degree in Culture and Spirituality at Sophia Center in Oakland California. We are fortunate that she has agreed to become an Associate with woman'Space.)

Reflections on Being Women of Hope

From Wendy Sarno
Published in the Spring 2005 issue of woman'Spirit

As I write this morning the day is overcast and chill for a day in early March. Last week, spring. Today a frosting of snow lies over the grass. I've talked to so many women this winter who are feeling depressed, tho these dark days of late winter do so often bring along a primitive desire to haul into our caves and wait till the greening days of Spring. This year the spirits of people seem lower than usual. It is not hard to understand as we look around at our world, the wars, the politics of our own country, the devastation from the tsunami at Christmas that continues to cry out for relief. It is so easy to feel our powerlessness in the face of events so much larger than our personal lives. It is all too easy to fall into some despair or apathy or denial. Yet. . . I sense deep in my bones a call to something else. . . a call to stay awake. . . to rise up with some energy . . to be a "woman of Hope" as Francis Rothleuber called us to be in her presentation here last April.(2004)

Shortly after the election in November friends sent me a letter from Clarissa Pinkola Estes who had spoken at the Call to Action Conference. In this letter she said, "Yet, I urge you, ask you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry by bewailing these difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because, the fact is that we were made for these times. Yes. For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement." What would this mean, I wondered as I read these lines, that "we were made for these times"? And she is not the only one who speaks of this. . . that we, of this generation, we women who are doing our own healing work, our own inner work, opening our hearts, deepening ourselves in God... we are preparing ourselves for the Great Work of transformation. And this transformation is not simply about our own private lives, but it is largely and extraordinarily about the transformation of the whole family of creation on this planet Earth.

Two books have come across my desk this year both of which begin with the same passage from a poem by Christopher Fry called the Sleep of Prisoners. These lines form the heart of the passage: Thank God our time is now when wrong/comes up to face us everywhere,/never to leave us till we take/the longest stride of soul we humans ever took/ affairs are now soul size./The enterprise/is exploration into God.

So much of the work of woman'Space is about this "exploration into God". We reach into our own lives, into our own experience to find the place, the voice of the Divine speaking to us, through us. We listen in reverent circles of women to the sacred stories of soul as it has been lived out in other lives. We nurture and encourage and inspire and challenge one another to open our hearts, to stay awake, to risk Mystery, to walk with courage and Hope in a difficult world. I hope you all will join us in the year to come as we gather for spiritual nourishment together and find both the courage and the joy to take this "longest stride of soul" .

Womanspirit Autumn 2006

On a beautiful weekend in early October this year 24 women gathered in the midst of the southern Illinois cornfields to celebrate the harvest of earth and spirit. Our first womenSpace residential retreat. We gathered in the gracious setting of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ in Ruma for two days of time away in the company of soul-sisters to deepen our connection with earth, with ourselves and with each other. We shared stories, shared ritual, wrote poems, created sacred mandalas. We built personal altars with the flowers and the fruits of the season. We drummed under a full moon, laughed, walked the landscape under warm sun and piercing blue sky. We ate in abundance. It was truly a celebration of the beauty women can bring and be for each other when our spirits are allowed to come out and play.

Women are so connected to the rythms of nature. It's born into us. We are earth and moon. Our very blood flows in response to the tides. In so many ways our culture has tried to train this out of us. We use clocks to tell us what time it is, not the light of the sun. We use five-pound Planners to dictate our schedules rather than the slow sweep of the seasons... the seasons of our own bodies, of our households, of our hearts. But deep in our bodies and souls we remember and we wake up again in response to the natural world when we have the chance. It is such a joy to share this awareness with other women, to spend even two days in a kindly rhythm moving between community and solitude, inner awareness and out attention, the comfort of the indoors, and the quickening energy of the outer landscape.

From our program with Debby Stutsman in January letting our souls find expression in art and writing, thru the delightful day with Tobias Hagan finding fresh energy for tired souls, thru the weekend in Ruma celebrating our Harvest, we want to say an enormous Thank You to all the women we have shared woman-time and woman'Space with this year.

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