This upcoming November, I will have been hosting Women’s Circles every two weeks for three years. And I realized this morning, that one of the problems with this is that you forget that a whole lotta women … have no idea what you’re talking about.

Lately, when I create the Invite on Facebook for the ones where we welcome new members, I’ve been leaving the description blank … hmmm, what is it exactly that we’re doing?

Luckily, I found the Facebook group description from our group:

The Moon Lodge is a women’s circle that meets on new and full moons as an interfaith place to pause from the stress of everyday life, honor the rhythms in ourselves and our world, appreciate beauty, our unique strengths, support each other, state intentions, help each other grow as we need to and better love, love, love … no room here for petty, judgmental or competitive. The only person we need to be better than … is the person we were yesterday. It’s purpose is To Inspire – what makes you come alive? Find it.

Find it.

I wish I could say that it’s been the same women coming for three years, but it has not been. There have been these different ‘core groups’ over the years. It’s funny how I can look back and see these shifts in the sand. I still stay in touch with a lot of these women, and I still feel as if we’re ‘journeying’ together.

All of us have made and are making some incredible changes in our lives.

You see, Women’s Circles are not for the faint of heart. They require a willingness to look into the mirror and acknowledge what you see. For every stride that I’ve made in my life, I’ve also acquired some bruises and bumps to go along with it: the Scar Clan as the good doctor would say.

And they’re not therapy. We don’t sit around and whine and complain about our lives and what has been ‘done’ to us. We do a short meditation and then pass around a journal to write down our intentions. We pass around this beautiful bowl and say 1-3 minutes of whatever we feel like saying: with no interruptions, no opinions from the rest of us, no further discussion and no judgment either.

This has been such an incredible tool for me personally to learn: look this is my life, my truth – you don’t have to ‘get it’, you don’t have to agree with it, but if you are my friend and my ‘sister’, then you will ‘hear’ me and accept that this is where I am on my journey. 

Some don’t. And that is fine. Once you learn to stop holding on to things so tightly, the right traveling compadres appear as if by magic. 😉

We’re ‘finding our voice’ in our Circle in more ways than one. We sing. We drum. We’ve been ‘ad libbing’ on the directions.

Yes, I get the ‘cultural appropriation’ side of ‘Moon Lodges’ and the ‘Directions’, but we’re not appropriating it, we’re making it our own. Acknowledging the different forces and opposites in the world and then asking for help to find balance within ourselves.

You see, that’s the key, the ‘within ourselves’ part.

 

“Female friendships that work are relationships in which women help each other belong to themselves.”

― Louise Bernikow

*An Fen at Tribe Sisterhood Camp Out – find this event and others like it also on the DF App

I’m nearing 50, and in my life, I’ve seen counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, been on medication, read every book I can get my hand on, and nothing, nothing has helped me as much as Women’s Circles.

Which is why I made the computer app .. www.FindAWomensCircle.com (the DF App)… to help spread this magic.

I’m not telling you what to do in your Women’s Circle. Figure it out yourselves. But do it. Step outside your comfort level, list your desire to find/start or join a Women’s Circle on the App, find some like-minded women in your area to come together every few weeks and start journeying together.

You see, I really can’t explain it. It’s just something you have to experience. It’s like many of the truly best things in life, simple and subtle, but so profound …

My father used to have this saying about why I needed to go to college. He said that it is something no one can ever take away from you: that a mind once stretched never returns to its original state.

These are Women’s Circles, too. Once you start seeing these possibilities, these windows, these new futures … well, I’ll shut up now. Go find out for yourself, really …

Love to hear some feedback on this. What is your experience with Women’s Circles?