Last night I had a dream that the daughter of an old friend of mine, had taken a course on what it is to be a woman. My friend Willa and I were young mothers again and our daughters were around 10. After taking the class, there was a noticeable difference in Stephanie. She walked taller. She was more serene, Others in her family recognized her place and honored her. She had confidence and a certainty in who she was. She had become integral in her family and helped with her younger siblings and what we think of as “feminine” chores. Her parents were also involved in the course to some extent, but mostly it was a teaching for her. The entire family had changed, though.
Instead of becoming more removed from the family and rebellious, as teenagers do, she had learned to honor herself and understood the best of what it is to be female, feminine in a strong and gentle way and intuitive way.
Others of us in the community learned of the course and started to send our daughters. Even though some of them were a bit older, they and their families benefited from it.
Part of the requirements of the course (for the daughter) was to write about it. I remember reading what Stephanie wrote and the contents blew me away. It was clearly a sacred experience for her, helping her to explore and know more about her individual path ahead, removing fears and uncertainties.
It seemed to be a sacred path.
[As I write about it now, I have a niggling doubt. Would serenity at the age of 10 be a positive outcome? Don’t our daughters (and sons?) need to rebel, to pull away from their families? Were they being programmed in some way in this course I dreamed of? Then I thought of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, and the way that these stories and others of their time depict girls and women more like Stephanie in my dream – having clear steps to walk to align with their mothers. They didn’t have to rebel, because life did not present the discrepancies and disharmonies that we know today. In the dream there was no feeling that the girls were repressed – just a more mature, self-aware, and balanced movement toward adulthood.]
The course in my dream was definitely a sacred offering. Many of the daughters in our community started to take the course. There was a course for boys too – but my son and Stephanie’s brothers were too young at the time for me to know much about it in the dream. There was a shift in the community and a rejoicing to be turning to sacred ways that honor us individually.
I feel blessed to have received the dream. It speaks to me of hope.
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8 hummingbird way 