One of the many dragonfly visitations in my life…
I am having an awakening. Like the thousand petals of the lotus flower opening one by one this journey I am on now is leading me back to my roots. I am finding my way home.
Home is the work that I have been doing since I was in my 20’s, creating and belonging to women’s circles. Creating an atmosphere of support, encouragement, compassion, gentle love, and deep delight. The last women’s circle I created was in 1999 when I was 45. It lasted through most of 2006. We had 1500 members and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It was my first online community and it was very successful. I finally believed I had done everything that I could do with that circle and gently closed the community and went on with my life.
Bits and pieces are coming to me, thoughts and ideas. I will not rush this. I must envision it fully in my heart and mind and then figure out the logistics. What I know is it will be for women centered in loving kindness and compassion, and now, at 63, I am older, my focus has shifted, I am not just a mother, I am a grandmother. I have moved through maiden and mother, I am now a crone. I see a Crone’s circle, older women around a blazing fire, with younger women around the older women, coming to seek the crones wisdom and counsel, love and support, while bringing their youth and bright lights to the group, but the heart of the group will always be the crones, the grandmothers. Those who have lived long, gone through much, and gained wisdom. A place to meet and talk and support one another. The grandmothers to the mothers to the maidens, each encircling each in our arms and hearts. We must all support one another but there is an order to things.
It is also important to me that this is a worldwide community open to women of every country, ever color, every faith, and understood at the core is that while this is open to women of all faiths none will be allowed to proselytize or try to convert. We accept one another, as we are, we celebrate each other, we learn from each other. We embrace one another’s differences, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. We come together at the fire to tell our stories, to bring to the circle the hard places in our lives that need support, to ask questions and be open to receiving answers offered in loving kindness rooted in wisdom gained in life. Not here to be therapists for one another, but wisdom seekers and knowledge sharers. The crones carry the torches that light the way. We light the torches of those who are younger than us with our own. We reach out our arms, we hold hands, we hold one another and laugh and cry with one another. We tell our sacred stories.
I see there being a forum where all kinds of things are discussed but also as a journal teacher of nearly 40 years there will be weekly journal classes, a place to write our stories, share our lives, there could even be eBooks, collections of our stories. There is so much possibility here. This will be like no other women’s group online. As I signed off when I wrote to my Dragonfly Cottage Community For Women, “Each one, reach one, and love, always love.”
I have given all of my work for free with every women’s circle that I’ve created and I can no longer afford to do that, but I see a modest fee monthly, no commitment to stay any certain length of time, women could come and go as time, money, and needs allow. But I think something very powerful could be birthed in a group such as this. When women gather around the world in friendship and love there’s no telling what might happen. We could change the world. We could save the world. We could heal hearts and mend souls, one woman at a time, woman to woman. A group such as this is like the old fable about Stone Soup. We each only have what we have, we bring our own talents, experience, knowledge and gifts. It often doesn’t seem like much when it is only one woman, but a worldwide village of women could create a kettle of soup that would feed the world. I believe this is what my life is about, what I was meant to do and be.
I don’t need to know how all of this will manifest, as I said it won’t be rushed, it will be rooted in gentleness and kindness all the way, but tiny seeds are being planted in the sacred ground of the cosmos, they are starting to sprout, one day they will bear fruit. I don’t know how it will happen but in my heart I believe that it will. It will be my life’s work. I will do it until I die.
If you are interested stay in touch with me here. I will be talking about it here and there along the way. You can follow me on Facebook and chat with me there. You can send me your thoughts and ideas. Tell me what you really need, what would serve you, feed you, and support you. I will be listening with a heart wide open. The internet allows us to weave a web of women all over the world.
Also I am bringing back a service I have had in the past. I call it “Maitri’s Comfort Calls.” Imagine talking to a gentle, kind, loving grandmother whose heart is open to you, who is there to listen and respond to you, from a lifetime of living and loving, being married and raising three children, being divorced and learning to live alone, who has suffered through decades of mental illness but always come through with a steadfast commitment to healing, wholeness, and the possibility of a better life. I am also a writer and journal teacher of 40 years, a Reiki Master, Shamballa Master Healer, and an ordained Interfaith minister who has spent decades studying many spiritual paths. And so much more. I would love to hear from you if this is something you think you’d like. Consider me sprinkling seeds on the bare earth with the full knowledge and belief that what is meant to grow will grow. I am planting my garden now. I will be delighted to see what comes up.
Oh dear friends my heart is so full. This healing journey that I’m on is producing miracle after miracle. I believe in miracles. And I have a heart full of love. I am finally ready to share that love now. And one of the biggest things of all to me is the return to Dragonfly Cottage. My beloved Dragonfly Cottage died the night of the fire, I was certain it was gone for good. But as I come back to life, back to old dreams, back to the home inside myself, Dragonfly Cottage is rising from the ashes. I am home now, it’s good to be home.
Welcome to Dragonfly Cottage…
The Experiment ~A 365 Day Search For Truth, Beauty &
Happiness: Day 1 ~ Introduction To The Project
“Do or do not. There is no try.”
Yoda
This Crone is in 😀 I think a fee will help keep the group for those who truly need it and not just lurking. Blessed Be 🙏🏻 Blaine
Yay Blaine! Crone hug!!! <3 And a fee is absolutely essential because it is a LOT of work to create and run a community, it is a full-time job, and I have very little income and really need it, but just as important is the fact, as you say, that women there would have a serious commitment. Lurkers are a nightmare. I’m going to take my time with this, but I’m really excited.
Best and Blessings to you… 🙂
Maitri, you know I believe in your wisdom and strength and power to create wonderful healing and wisdom circles of all sorts.
I’d be delighted to join in a circle of women like you describe, as you know. Continue on as you’re inspired. All best thoughts, LW
Oh Lisa I would love that! I so love your presence and your wisdom, you are just a delight to have in a circle, thank you so much. Hold a good thought for me… 🙂
Oh Maitri, I hope a lot of people find you and connect by phone. What a great idea! And yes talking to a Grandmother can be healing and relaxing.
I am glad you are feeling so much better too.
Love, Crone Jean <3
Ah sweet Crone Jean, it is so lovely to have you here with me. I always just light up when I see your sweet face here. And yes I hope the Comfort Calls are a success. I want to comfort and help others in these trying times. I believe it is my gift and I know how much a phone call can mean. I am praying that this is the right path and that I may bless others on it….
I’d love to be a part of this. I am a great-grandmother 10 times over. I consider myself a Spiritual nurse and a prayor. Count me in.
Oh Marge what a blessing you would be to such a group. I would be delighted and I know you would help many with your presence and your wisdom and your kindness. Will you please pray for me that I find my way with this, and do the right things that will help and bless others. I want to have a life that serves and supports other women, it has been what is most important to me for 40 years. Bless you honey, bless you…
I am definitely with you, my friend! And I am so glad that you’ve realized that your beloved Dragonfly Cottage home is actually within you, and has been patiently waiting for your return. I’m reminded of Dorothy in the “Wizard of Oz”, who learns after much struggle, that here dreams were always right at home! Welcome home, dear Maitri!
Oh Dear Susan, thank you so much honey. I would so love to have you in the circle, it would mean the world to me to have you there. And yes, Dragonfly Cottage was born in my heart, everyplace I lived through 7 moves was my Dragonfly Cottage, and it has grown and deepened in my heart over time. The fire and so many losses blinded me to what it had meant, I didn’t think it would ever be possible to create such a community again, to have my home feel like Dragonfly Cottage, and it doesn’t feel like the old Dragonfly Cottage but we have both gone through a firey transformation, the Phoenix has taken a long while to rise, but everything happens in it’s own right and proper time. Here we are, the time is now…
Love the term Crone😍Wise women were venerated in times past, perhaps it’s time to bring that back. I feel we have so much to give and as the wise generation are seen as invisible. 😢 Anyhow, Brilliant post as always and I will take the term Crone and love it.💐💋. xxx
Oh my sweet Olive, YES! I totally embrace and LOVE being a Crone! And we are so needed now. The world needs the grandmothers everywhere, the ones who have lived long enough to gain true wisdom, have been through the fires of life and come out on the other side burnished and new with stories to tell. The ones who have held not only little ones but our adult children and sometimes even their friends. The mothers need us as much as the children do. And often we don’t have a grandmother to turn to, or our “real” grandmothers are not close to us in our lives. Just being with a Crone Grandmother can bring so much healing and help and hope to younger ones. As I always say, each one, reach one, and love, always love. And so may it be now…
I have called my self a Crone for quite a few years now- I have stories to tell and wisdom to share. Does anyone want to listen? I have been looking for my village….it wasn’t where I thought it would be. I will follow you with interest and hope. Dragonflies speak to me…….
Ah Lorraine, it’s a very different world isn’t it? The places we would naturally have gone to for support, well, they just don’t seem to be there anymore. That’s why I want to create a circle of women led by the Crones online. There is a lot to be said that might be negative in the virtual world but there is also much that is positive and beautiful, you can connect with other women from all over the world without leaving your home. You can wake up in the morning and have coffee with a friend perhaps. You can make a friend that you might privately Skype with. One of my dearest friends that I have been talking to for years on the phone I now Skype with every week. There are just so many possibilities. And yes, dragonflies lead us out of the darkness and into the light. They are about transformation. They are beautiful and magical and powerful, that’s why they are my totem animal.
I hope the circle will come into being and I hope you will be in it. I am sending you a warm hug and blessings for the week ahead…