Women's Wisdom Group in Lewiston

This past Sunday I participated in a guiding circle for the Women’s Institute of Maine, a very special community of women run strictly by volunteers which currently offers a monthly women’s circle, women’s circle trainings, and a number of online resources “to amplify women’s wisdom and voice.” From my very first experience sitting in a circle of women, I have been nurtured, inspired, taught, and touched. Last Sunday, surrounded by deeply caring and committed women was no exception.

In Circle of Stones: Woman's Journey to Herself, Judith Duerk wrote, “How might your life have been different if there had been a place for you? A place for you to go… a place of women, to help you learn the ways of woman… a place where you were nurtured from an ancient flow sustaining you and steadying you as you sought to become yourself. A place of women to help you find and trust the ancient flow already there within yourself… waiting to be released… A place of women… How might your life be different?”

When women regularly experience the wisdom, warmth, and acceptance of other women who came together to offer support and to honor one another’s voices through deep listening - the kind of listening that creates “containers of emergence,”[i] lives are eventually transformed.

It’s in a circle of women that we very often come closest to ourselves, discover aspects of our own sacred story mirrored in the story of another; claim our gifts and strengths very often for the first time, and learn to trust the darkness as we fully experience our pain while being held in the hearts of our sisters.

If you are a woman and live within a commutable distance to Lewiston/Auburn, I would like to warmly invite you to join us at the Center for Wisdom’s Women on Tuesday, October 6^th from 1:00 to 2:30 for our first wisdom circle. The center is located at 97 Blake Street in Lewiston and is committed to helping women discover their inner resources, pursue life affirming relationships, and develop their potential. Participation in the Wisdom Circle is free.

Rainer Maria Rilke observed, “there is nothing as wise as a circle.” Following are some helpful resources regarding forming and maintaining circles.

The Women’s Institute of Maine Wisdom Circle Page

The Wisdom Circles Homepage

Becoming: Women’s Circles Women’s Lives

[i] Anderson, Sherry Ruth, and Patricia Hopkins, The Feminine Face of God: The Unfolding of the Sacred in Women (Bantam, 1992.)