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A Message from Joan ~
This is a busy month for me. At first I couldn't understand why there were so many engagements until I realized that March is all about Women's History. Since I write about women's myriad thoughts and foibles, I decided to dedicate this newsletter to all of us.
It is indeed exciting to reminisce about the numerous women who have come through my life since the writing of A Year By The Sea-women who sought to find out who they were beyond the roles that they played, who are "upgrading their genes" so to speak and reinvigorating themselves in the process. It is said that by the time a woman is 49 she is birthing a mature psyche and the women I know are doing just that.
Some have been called to take dramatic departures such as hiking the Camino in Spain, trekking to Nepal with parkas for the people, building schools in Africa, and even climbing Kilimanjaro. Others needed to get in touch with their bodies, vessels that had housed them but to whom they paid little attention. The next thing I heard there were many training for marathons, or bike races, and some even getting into personal training in the process. Those who were dealt hardships such as caring for a grandchild, aging parent, or husband had the wisdom to care for another but not to forget to care for herself in the process. In every case, be it a trial or a tribulation, the work they began on retreat has given them the tools to be their own best friend.
They have become wise women and aim to sow their seeds. For sure they are not done at 50-they are only just beginning.
"We need to sponsor ourselves!" Joan Erikson would say and indeed women are.
This weekend I welcome 40 women to Cape Cod, all ready to attend a weekend with the theme: Second Journey-Second Chance. They hail from 18 states as well as Bermuda and Canada. In reading their bio's they are in search of self...what's next...who can I be now...I need my turn.
A four star general recently said that if women had more power (or at least an equal share) the world would be safer and certainly better "Women solve problems with their minds, not with weapons," he said. "Their attitude is much more one of keeping calm and carrying on rather than fight and kill."
This is why Meryl Streep is solidly behind the new National Women's History Museum. "Women are great diarists and have left a huge cache of information of how this nation survived because of the great input from women."
In thinking about how great women are, I came up with a few characteristics that make our sex not ordinary but extraordinary. We are: innately compassionate, instinctive and intuitive, the carriers of culture, nurturers, survivors, creative souls, always evolving, wild, hopeful, willful, determined, not afraid to show true feelings, and most of all, valiant. Without even knowing it we are becoming our own heroines.
During this month dedicated to women, why not have a party or a gathering and revel in all that you are and all that you have done and intend to do. We are all as unfinished as the shoreline along the beach, meant to transcend ourselves again and again.
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