Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The beginning of my journey

Some time ago I found myself sitting in a classroom as a mature aged student with a whole bunch of other women ready for a new beginning. It was a women's studies unit for my degree in anthropology and it was nothing like I had ever imagined!
We were a motley crew from here there and everywhere...we were all so different; from different places with different histories and with so many different stories to tell. It was in this small classroom with these women that were unknown to me, that I developed my passion for difference and my love for women's stories.
During those precious 13 weeks I began to understand the need for creating a safe space...a space where we could be the narrators of our stories and where we were listened to with honesty and without judgement. Over the years I have remembered stories and the women they belong to, I have collected them like the precious gems they are and stored them away in the safest of places. As women of the globe our stories are so very precious and so extremely worth sharing...
Yes we are all different and I treasure that but there is a sameness in us too; we all come from mothers, many of us are mothers ourselves...we all bleed, we all cry and we all laugh that deep belly laugh when we are with other women and when we can remove our masks and return to ourselves.
My journey is about continually returning "home", it is not always an easy one but it is those bumps in the road and the women (and sometimes men) I meet on the way and things we share and those we don't that make my return worthwhile and my story so unique.