Women

For the past 4 weeks, I have been part of a women's study group.  To simplify things, we call it Bible Study (and it is, in a way), but the main focus is studying Pope John Paul II's 1995 Letter to Women and a call for a "New Feminism."  (To really dilute this huge concept,) this is a culture that respects and empowers the woman, but also respects and empowers life.  The material is thought-provoking and I have learned a lot, but the best part is the group of women who have come together.
I first joined my church's women's Bible Study in the fall of 2004.  The school at which I taught had just closed and I was floundering.  What a wonderful group of women God put in my path that year!  We supported each other, prayed with and over each other, listened to each other, and usually ate lunch with each other, too.  I looked forward to meetings every week.  Then, more babies started to arrive, some began outside work after being stay-at-home moms for several years, and we disbanded.
My friend Deb (amazing homeschooling mom of 6) decided something was missing in our lives this past winter--and she was right.  We chose this topic from a list of several possibilities.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  We do read the written material provided for us, but the lessons I have learned from these fellow mothers have been the best part.  Last week, one of the women said when she first came she looked around the table and thought, "I can learn so much from these women."  The rest of us said we felt the same way about her!
My time with these women will soon be over as I will start my spring part-time drama directing gig, but I do hope we come together again next winter.  It has been such a gift in these dreary days.
David has wanted me to be more interested in politics (or just the news in general) for years, but I just do not have the space in my brain right now.  As my friend Cathy says, "It is not my time."  I am consumed with taking care of my corner of the world--my family, my home, my family's spiritual and physical well-being, and let's not forget keeping the backpacks full of what they need to have for the day!  I hope when our children go out into the world, they will have the foundation to make it a little better place in which to live.  At that time, maybe I will have the time and energy to reach out a little farther, too.
I will close with this quote from the next week's chapter.  It may not fit your life, but it certainly fits mine.
Female interests are centered on the human side of their lives:  their family life, their relationships to those they love, their concern about their health, their welfare and, if they are Christians, the spiritual welfare of their children's souls; in other words, about human concerns.  Most men speak about the stock market, politics, and sports; some speak about intellectual and artistic questions.  [G.K.] Chesterton was right when he wrote, "Women speak to each other; men speak to the subject they are speaking about."'
(Alice von Hildebrand, The Privilege of Being a Woman) 
May God bless your day!