How will their lives be different?

Excerpt from Circle of Stones by Judith Duerk

 
   How might your life have been different if 

there had been a place for you...a place of women,

where you were received and affirmed?  A place where

other women, perhaps somewhat older, had been affirmed

before you, each in her time, affirmed, as she 

struggled to become more truly herself.

     A place where, after the fires were lighted, and

the drumming, and the silence, there would be a hush 

of expectancy filling the entire chamber...a knowing

that each woman there was leaving old conformity to

find her self...a sense that all of womanhood stood on 

a threshold.

     And, if, during the hush, the other women, 

slightly older, had helped you to trust your own 

becoming...to trust it and quietly and prayerfully to nurture

it...

     How might your life be different?

What follows is a true story answer.