Circles of Sisters

I know I’m a lesbian, but despite the old myth, I really do like men. I had a father in my life for thirty years, rest his soul. I had several uncles—one remaining. I have four brothers, several nephews and great-nephews, lots of male cousins, two godsons, and two chosen sons. My mentor is a man, and one of my all-time favorite people. Heck, according to a past-life regression and a couple of different readings, I was a man in several past lives. With all that being said, I have a special affinity for women, and absolutely love being in circles of them.

I was a tomboy growing up—four brothers—go figure.  However I also went to a school system that educated the boys and girls separately through 5^th grade. I never had a male school teacher or classmate until middle school, so I got used to being in a female-only crowd. 

When I went to college, I pledged a sorority my freshman year.  More women bonding together through talking, laughing, crying, socializing, doing service activities, hazing—I mean, pledging, other young women. I even helped found a graduate chapter of the sorority. Repeat of the same.

Over the years, I seemed to gravitate to others circles of women. In the late 90's, I joined a women’s circle at a former church. We met monthly to empower, uplift, perform ritual. It became ingrained.

When I moved to the Northern Virginia area back in 2001, I decided to build community by joining a book club. Men were welcomed, they just didn’t come. Our sister circle, made of different generations of women, discussed all sorts of wonderful books, took field trips, and even had a theme party around a book.

After I moved to Maryland in 2006, I connected with an amazing group of women from my spiritual community. We called ourselves The Pretend Book Club, because we rarely read the book in question, and used the gathering as an excuse to eat and talk. We all became so much more. I’ll share with you about them in another post.

In 2007, I attended Iyanla Vanzant’s Wonder Woman Weekend. Imagine two and a half days of healing with about 100 women. Amazing! I’ve been to other women’s retreats in Malibu, and Monterey, California. I had to remind myself I’m an East Coast gal with a house, career, and connections back home.

In 2012 I joined another circle of amazing women from my current spiritual community. Founded by my sister-friend, Rev. Cynthia Bond, the DIVAS are Divine Intentional Victorious Annointed Sisters.  I’m not able to gather with them monthly at this time, but they remain firmly implanted in my heart.

My friend Ginny Robertson has a number of On Purpose Networking for Women gatherings—not like any other type of networking I’ve ever attended. An annual women’s conference has grown out of it, and for the past two years that I’ve attended, each large and small break-out session has turned into a sister circle experience. Pow-her-full!

Additionally, I’ve been coordinating a Reiki share for over a year now. We had one man to show up once, and since then it’s been all women. Another circle of sisters. We gather each month to ground ourselves, connect to the universal love energy, facilitate healing through Reiki, and give and receive messages from Spirit. Powerful healing goes on, and wonderful friendships have formed and cemented.

Another current sister gathering is my Throat Chakra Celebration Circle. I’ve been facilitating this for about a year and a half. What spectacular women have shown up to work with throat chakra energy!  I cook, we eat, sing, chant, dance, drum, laugh, cry, create, and tell our stories for healing, unblocking, tapping into, and amplifying our throat chakra energy to express our inner to manifest what we desire in our outer. 

As we’ve entered into this post-2012 time of re-balancing, with a re-emergence of Divine Feminine energy, more circles of sisters have shown up. Several of my friends and colleagues are facilitating them. They have various themes, meeting times and frequencies, activities etc.  Some are spiritually or religious-based, some are not. There’s something for every woman. An African proverb says “when spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.” There is POWER in these collectives of feminine energies. No wonder men started the Salem witch trials. However, this energy is not to be feared, but celebrated.

So my brothers, I love you, I truly do. However I feel amazing power when I’m encircled with my sisters. Thank you ladies, for supporting me as I’ve transformed into who I am today, and for allowing me support you, too, in some way.