The Second Time Around by Kathleen Colby

Greetings -- May All Beings Be Free,

I am a Graduate of 2 Woman Within Initiations. My 1st weekend was in May 1999 in Delavan WI. And I also attended the November 2008 weekend in Delavan WI. I wanted to write about what happened, how it was different and what was happening and how it is now different.

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A Visit From A Hawk Brings Life Lessons by Louise Lovdahl

A few weeks ago I looked out my kitchen window into the piercing eyes of a very large hawk. Perched on the deck, he held my gaze with deep intensity, trying to relay an important message.

As his image lingered in my mind over the next days, I realized that the whole neighborhood was quiet with the absence of twittering birds. Squirrels no longer played tag in the trees. I wondered if this was simply a part of nature or if there was something more.

Continue reading: http://www.womenincircle.org/heartbeat/20090204.html

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Horse Talk

Some days there’s not a lot to do
Yet, six months a year
When Lilly and I go to Midwest horse shows
I recall as we fly over fences
Often three feet high and two feet wide
That sometimes Jenny forgets to support me.
If I don’t set my pace she’ll fly over my head,
Or into the fence, fracturing her brittle hip, or neck.

When we aren’t on the road
There’s Jepetta, Chris, Rose or Bailey to hang with.
We meet under the trees by the watering trough
And munch on the newest piece of barn gossip:
Who dumped their slouchy rider, farted the loudest,
won more ribbons, made Homer and Doty laugh?

Though most of us are smart, handsome and tall
And a tad out of shape,
We still have all our hair --
Seal brown, dappled gray, midnight black,
Light chestnut all mixed with a little white
Such an asset, our women tell us.
All of us -- yes all! have led
Previous lives of fame and success
Be it Belmont, Ocala or the Illinois show ring
We’ve been there, done that.

So you see,
In our partners eyes it doesn’t matter,
Whether we have two legs or four,
We’re all kept here,
Here, we are all kept.

E.B. Wilson
House in the Woods
Delavan, 1989

Winter

On this frosty morning
when my eyes behold more stars
in the early sky than rays of sunlight.
My skin feels the cold crisp air
of Mother Nature’s change of heart.
In this place
I wonder
if this winter could find me
where the great black bear
of the Northwest will spend her days.
How blessed for me to be curled up in hibernation
with those I adore and have come to love
these past warm days of spring and summer.
To sleep deeply and dream wildly
of the joys we have shared,
each memory adding its own blanket of warmth.
Then if awakened
A bear hug would be the routine
language of the heart’s affection
to gently comfort me back to sleep.
Then in time I would emerge
with the first easy melting of snow.
New gifts faithfully embraced now to be shared
as the tender birds arrive home.
Waking with the promise of day
with only my basic instincts to guide me
I allow my simple awareness to invite me
more deeply into another season of life.

David A. Ruch M.Div MA
President/Founder Big Fat Happiness Inc