Our third Wise and Strong Women Speak program to be held on Friday, March 8.  Each of the programs in this series features two women, who in a public conversation share their memories and wisdom.  The featured speakers this time are Rachel Desgrosseilliers and Rita Dube who have both led distinguished lives in our community.  In their conversation, they will focus their reflections on the power of heritage.

Since 2004, Rachel Desgrosseilliers has been Executive Director of Museum L-A.  In that role Rachel is developing a new Museum of Work and Community for Lewiston-Auburn and surrounding communities.  The museum tells the story of who we are as a people and challenges us to revisit the spirit of our amazing ancestors. Museum L-A has won several regional and national awards for programs, exhibits and published materials and prides itself in being a “Museum Without Walls.” Rachel also speaks nationally on a regular basis at the various Museum Associations in America.

Rita Dube

Rita Dube recently retired as Executive Director of the Franco-American Heritage Center.  As founder, she was instrumental in the development and restoration of the beautiful former St. Mary’s Church, transforming it into a state-of-the-art Performance Hall, a Heritage Museum, a Learning Center, and a multi-purpose Hall. It took 12 years to accomplish those results and 6 million dollars in fundraising. The venue has become a true community asset and a source of pride for all, especially the Franco-American community.

Marguerite Stapleton will again host the evening.  She has noted that “There are so many wise and strong women in this community.  It is time to celebrate this fact and invite them to give voice to their stories.” Marguerite has been involved in the community since 1977 and now offers resources in spirituality to individuals, groups and organizations through her consulting business, Wisdom Works. Marguerite was on the first Board of Directors for the women’s center. Anyone who knows her knows that she loves this community, its history and its people, and is passionate about women’s issues.

On Saturday evening, March 9, the women’s center this year is adding an additional event in honor of International Women’s Day. A gathering of women’s singing circles will offer a program called “Singing our Lives!”  Featured groups are Women With Wings from Bangor, and the Women’s Chorus from Brunswick. Each group will share several songs and also teach some for the gathered participants to sing together.  Other women’s singing circles or individual female singer-songwriters are invited to come offer a song or two.  The singing will be interspersed with poetry by and about women.

For ages, singing together has been a powerful form of healing, empowerment and celebration for women.  Women With Wings, which has met for two hours weekly since 1993, has as their goal to create “a safe, sacred space for exploring women’s spirituality through music.” In the pattern of our foremothers, through song they strive to enhance consciousness of Mother Earth, express love for the environment, and celebrate traditions form many cultures.(For more information see www.womenwitwings.org).  You are invited to join in this remarkable evening of singing with others.  No experience is needed, no reading of music required.   

The Friday evening presentation is from 5-7:00 p.m. and is open to the public. It will take place at the Center for Wisdom’s Women, located between Pine and Ash Streets, at 97 Blake St. in the extension in the back of Healy Terrace. There is limited parking on site, please use the street or the Park St. garage. Look for the door next to a big sign with a sunflower on it!

The Saturday evening event will take place just up the street at Trinity Episcopal Church, 247 Bates St., Lewiston (corner of Spruce). Doors open at 6:00 with the singing beginning at 7:00. Those who wish to perform a song should arrive early o sign up for a spot in the line-up.

March is also designated as Women’s History Month.  Our formal histories have tended to leave out the stories of women and the impact they have made in the world, so often accomplished quietly and behind the scenes. At a time of great need, there now seems to be a spirit moving in the world, bringing women to the forefront of change and it is exciting to watch. With these programs, we celebrate women in our own community who have made a difference. Come Friday and/or Saturday to be inspired by word and song, and let your own light shine!

Simple refreshments and beverages will be offered at both venues. There is no charge for either event, though donations are welcomed to support The Center for Wisdom’s Women. For more information contact the Executive Director, Klara Tammany at 513-3922.

The “Women’s Community Chorus” from Brunswick joined us on the Solstice, December 21 to introduce the idea and help us get started. (Pat Canon leading, 2nd from left in photo.) A few of them will return on 2/25. Please spread the word and come for a joyful and life-giving time! No experience needed, you don’t even have to read music! Bring some snacks to share if you can. Tea will be on!

Future Full Moon Singing Circles Dates:

Wed. March 27, Thurs. April 25, Sat. May 25, Sun. June 23

We are now in our 5th year being open independent of our founders.  So to celebrate, our annual Open House will be all day long, in conjunction with the “Festival of Art and Light” in downtown Lewiston.  We are listed as one of the venues.

Free beverages and snacks! Quilt Raffle drawing! Door prizes! Bake Sale! Learn to make (or buy)Wisdom Boxes!

While you are out and about, come celebrate with us! Activities throughout the day:

11-12:00 MUSIC – Denise Dill

Noon: HONORING our SHEROs

1-1200 SINGING CIRCLE

 2:30-4:00 CHAIR  MASSAGE Sarah Goodrich

4:00 DRAWING  Quilt Raffle, Door Prizes.

March 2012 event – Standing room only with 50+ guests attending!

Friday evening 5:00-7:00

October 12, 2012

A conversation between Marjory Zoet Bankson and Tammie Fowles. Both women are authors, one is a theologian, the other a therapist. These incredible women will share stories about their lives and how they found and followed their callings. Host: Marguerite Stapleton from Wisdom Works. Light refreshments will be served. No registration, just come! Donations appreciated to support the Center.

Saturday, October 13, 9-3:00 – A quiet day with Marjory Zoet Bankson!

Marjory Zoet Bankson

Marjory, who is also a gifted potter and retreat leader, will lead a quiet day using her book “The Soulwork of Clay: A Hands on Approach to Spirituality.  Cost $20, includes a simple lunch. Books will be available to purchase. Enrollment is limited to 15.  To sign up, call or send an e-mail to the Center.

FMI: http://www.sunjournal.com/news/connections/0001/11/30/wise-and-strong-women-speak-program-oct-12/1254214

The good news they do not print.

The good news we do print.

We have a special edition every moment, and we need you to read it.

OUR good news is that…

Abby lost over 30 lbs.  People write songs. The sun always shines after the rain.  My mom is getting better.  We have great artists and painters and writers at the women’s center. Jesus is coming and we don’t have to worry.  Three people I know are going to college – my son, a future daughter in law and my nephew.  People are there for us to teach and care for us, no matter how bad things are.  Team work, courage, laughter and friendship are beautiful things. Dogs and cats (and clumping litter).  My new cat who is making my old cat better.  Flowers blooming, sunflower seeds growing. no rain today, birds chirping, butterflies, owls hooting.  Music & creativity.  We have the Wisdom Center and can hang out with good women.  Things are calm and quiet.

Listen!  You have ears that can hear it.

Bow your head. Listen to it.

Leave behind the world of sorrow and preoccupation and get free.

The latest good news is that you can do it!

Amanda (l) with Companions Pat and Sarah, and volunteer Diana.

Here is a list of our favorite poems from this year’s Tuesday Poetry Lunch.  Amanda Solche comes each week with a poem.  Yesterday was her last day for this school year.  She will be back in the fall.  Thank you Amanda for sharing these words of wisdom with us!

They Beauty of a Woman by Maya Angelou

Beautiful Woman by Fion Lim

Won’t You Celebrate With Me by Lucille Clifton

Our Deepest Fear by Marianne Williamson

The Journey by Mary Oliver

I Am the Captain of My Soul by nideesh

I’m Alive, I Believe in Everything by Lesley Choyce

In Celebration of My Unterus by Anne Sexton

Love Should Grow Up Like a Wild Iris in the Fields by Susan Griffin

Sunflowers by Mary Oliver (This is becoming a theme poem for us!)

I see many white things.  Those things would be an apartment building that has at least 20 window, painted lines, arrows, and crosswalks along with frames of the windows and doors, and the porches and poles at Healey Terrace.  The signs on the piece of equipment that reads “United Rentals.”  I also see the Sun Journal vans and mail trucks that have a lot of white on them.  I also see with white, the parking signs that read “compact car parking” and the sign on the Credit Union building that has Five County on it.  And also this paper I am writing on.

A BIG CHANGE IN MY LIFE   – Anonymous

One thing that has made a big change in my life would be the day I started going to counseling.  I think the way it has changed me is by allowing me to talk with someone and be able to express my feelings about issues in my life that I deal with.  One issue I’ ve dealt with that my counselor has helped me with was when I was with my ex-boyfriend.  She helped me see patterns in his behavior that I was unaware of and helped me learn the difference between being aggressive, passive, or assertive due to the anger I had built up inside from the stress he caused me.  I learned quickly back at the start of our relationship between him and me that I was quite verbally aggressive because I used to call him names and insult him.  After we were through with each other I became more passive and just allowed anything that happened to be just that I allowed it to happen.  Now, I leaned in other situations to speak up and be assertive by advocating for myself and not allowing those people to smooth talk me into what I don’t want.

1 chance $2.00

3 chances $5.00

7 chances $10.00

15 chances $20.00

Stop by the women’s center any weekday morning to see the quilt and get your chances.  We will also be at various places over the summer such as Farmer’s Markets.

Please, just listen.

When I ask you to listen to me, and you start giving advice, you have not done what I asked.

When I ask you to listen to me, and you begin to tell me why I shouldn’t feel that way, you are trampling on my feelings.

When I ask you to listen to me, and you feel you have to do something to solve my problem, you have failed me, strange as that may seem.

Listen! All I asked was that you listen, not talk, or do… just hear.

Advice is cheap: A dollar twenty-five will get you both dear Abby and Billy Graham in the same newspaper, and I can do that myself.

I’m not helpless. Maybe discouraged and faltering, but not helpless.

When you do something for me that I can, and need to do for myself, you contribute to my fear and inadequacy.

But when you accept, as a simple fact, that I do feel no matter how irrational, then I can quit trying to convince you and get about the business of understanding what’s behind this irrational feeling.

And, when that’s clear, the answers are obvious and I don’t need advice.

Irrational feelings make sense when we understand what’s behind them.

So, please listen and just hear me, and if you want to talk,

wait a minute for your turn,and I’ll listen to you.

At the Center we do a LOT of listening.  The Companions are the focused listeners.  To help us learn the art of listening, we have read some books, and shared poems and articles.  Here is the list of those we have found most helpful:

Bard, Marjorie Shadow Women: Homeless Women’s Survival Stories (Sheed and Ward, 1990)

Ellis, Marc  A Year at the Catholic Worker (Paulist Press, 1978)

Gateley, Edwina I Hear a Seed Growing:  God of the Forest, God of the Streets (Source Books, 1990)

Henderson, Katharine Rhodes  God’s Troublemakers: How Women of Faith Are Changing the World (Continuum, 2006)

Lindahl, Kay The Sacred Art of Listening (Skylight Paths Publishing, 2002). See esp. p. 134 for “Nine Guidelines for Listening to Others.”

Pinkola Estes, Clarissa Untie the Strong Woman: Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Love for the Wild Soul (Sounds True, 2011)

Remen, Rachel Naomi M.D. Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal (Riverhead Books, 1996). See esp. p. 217 & 242.

Rennebohm, Craig  Souls in the Hands of a Tender God:  Stories of the Search for Home and Healing on the Streets (Beacon Press, 2008)

Shinda Bolen, Jean  The Millionth Circle (Cihari Press, 1999) – Everyone who becomes a Companion is asked to read this book.

Smith, Gary     Street Journal: Finding God in the Homeless (Sheed & Ward 1994)       Radical Compassion: Finding Christ in the Heart of the Poor  (Loyola, 2002)

Varnier, Jean Becoming Human (Paulist Press, 1998)

ARTICLES:

Huffington Post  “Are You Listening, Or Just Reloading?” Posted July 8, 2010 by Russell Bishop.

“The Voice Within” by Martha Beck from Oprah, August 2011.

“The Voices Inside Their Heads: Gail Horstein’s Approach to Understanding Madness.” by Tracy Frisch from The Sun, July 2011. “The Attentive Mind” from Think on These Things by J Krishnamurti found in The Sun, August 2011.

POETRY:

Sewell, Marilyn (ed.) Cries of the Spirit: A Celebration of Women’s Spirituality (Beacon Press, 1991). A collection of poetry by and about women. See esp.  Councils by Marge Piercy, Now I Become Myself” by May Sarton.

See also our poetry page on the Blog..