From the President, Janet Morrissey

“We are all longing to go home to some place we have never been—
a place half-remembered and half-envisioned we can only catch
a glimpse of from time to time. Community.
Somewhere, there are people to whom we can speak
with passion without having the words catch in our throats. Somewhere a circle of hands will open to receive us,
eyes will light up as we enter, voices will celebrate
with us whenever we come into our own power.

Community means strength that joins our strength to do the work
that needs to be done. Arms to hold us when we falter.
A circle of healing. A circle of friends.
Someplace where we can be free.”
Starhawk

When I read this, I instantly thought about Crones Counsel and the many Gatherings that I have attended. In the Wisdom Circles I have found a deep sharing and sometimes with a lot of passion.

In the latest issue of Crones Times, Sandy Eno gave an enlightening account of how the Gathering has called her back year after year because it feels like home, and the women she has met over the years are waiting to receive her with open arms. As she says, “I am with my tribe!”

Another part of Starhawk’s quote that grabbed my attention was the word longing. I have been intrigued by the concept of longing for years. In the early 1990s, I found a book by Cooper Edens called The Art of Longing. This is a sweet book with beautiful, soft pastel illustrations of a woman in different settings. There is one sentence or a phrase on the opposite page from the drawing. I love this line, “Longing is a word that means to put stars together.”

This led me to another one of my favorite books, John O’Donohue’s Eternal Echoes. This is filled with thoughts on longing, and one that touches me is, “One of our deepest longings is to find love and friendship.” Is that true? Since our earliest of years we are looking for these treasures, which we long for all of our lives.

O’Donohue ends the first chapter with a beautiful blessing. The first line is, “Blessed be the longing that brought you here and that quickens your soul with wonder.”

Clarissa Pinkola Estes in her famous book, Women Who Run With the Wolves, says, “We are all filled with a longing for the wild.” She describes the wild women and it sounds like a crone to me. Sometimes we have misplaced her, and there is a longing in us to find her and free her. She is everywhere and nowhere, but you know when she is present. Again, as I reread the Crones Times, I found Women who located the wild woman in nature, in books, in other wild women, and in themselves.

If you have not registered, I invite you to come and meet some wild women. Listen to the longing in your heart that is telling you to join with us in Denver to celebrate our uniqueness. Come and drum with us, listen to other Crones tell their stories, and find your wild women. See you in Denver.