This woman's work

This past weekend I went on a retreat with 30 women from my church. It was an incredibly relaxing, spiritually uplifting, and intellectually stimulating weekend. I was so in need of a recharge and it was just what I needed. (It was good in spite of our retreat leader, not because of her, though that's another story.) There is something so incredibly powerful about being surrounded by that much female energy. We were women from all different ages and stages of life. We were powerful women who have been through a lot and have wisdom to share. And share it we did. Some of us stay at home, others work part time or full time. Some of us have children, some of us do not. We have all made different decisions in our lives for different reasons but in the context of this weekend, none of that mattered. What mattered was time for us to renew ourselves, renew our friendships, and see God in each other, or should I say see the Goddess in one another. Though we didn't crack a Bible (which I thought was a definite problem), God was still alive and well there among Her children.

But of course, even after those incredible mountaintop experiences, you still have to come back to the valley where everyone actually lives. And in our valley world women are generally only appreciated for what they look like or what they can do with their bodies, not their wisdom and their incredible spirituality. I am presently reading Sherri Tepper's Gibbon's Decline and Fall, a kind of sci fi treatment of a backlash against women set in America in 2000. Scary how real it actually seems and how much of red state conservative America would probably not have a problem if women were actually treated the way they are in the book. Visit Progressive Commons to read about a very male dominated push to roll back women's reproductive rights. In the mail today was another pro-life brochure (the people who we bought our house from were apparently very catholic and very pro-life) about how "real" women needed to stand up and assert that women don't actually want the right to regulate their own bodies. The majority of america, don't you know, is not pro-choice and these real women need to stand up and tell america how women really are pro-life. (I hate this label as I am so not anti-life. I am pro-choice. I am pro keeping men from telling me what to do with my body. I am pro-child and pro-family and pro- making intelligent decisions about our bodies based on what we actually want from our lives.)

Well I spent a lot of time with unreal women this weekend. They were amazing and I felt amazing around them. It makes sense to me that many men really don't want women to get together without men around, because when they do, the power it creates is the power of the Maiden, Mother and Crone all in one. It is pretty scary, especially to those who would have women under their power. But I will be back at retreat next year and I know many other women will too. Rise up sisters. Together we are unbeatable.

(Many thanks to my wonderful DH who cheerfully took the kids all weekend to give me this time away. He knows the value of a powerful and spiritually renewed woman. We need more men like this in the world.)