“The phrase “kindred spirit” evokes for women who grew up reading the stories of the adventures and misadventures of Anne Shirley Anne Shirley a young woman, an orphan, who desperately wants to have a shared relationship that is a true and lasting connection between people as deep as a connection of kin but as individually affirming […]
Giving Beyond The Boxed Gift
This time of year makes me think of gifts and what women are giving to the next generation. This year, 2017, has been an extremely tumultuous time. To use a kitchen and baking metaphor our cultural batter is being is being whipped up, over-beaten, into a flat mess that may have a difficult time […]
Why Her Story?
There is a reason I use the word history, and not herstory, as might be predicted by my role as a feminist. I grew up in a time and in circumstances where I could not grow to be anything but a self-declared feminist. However, in many ways I am a traditionalist, though a quite progressive one. I love change, […]
The Two Mothers of Mother's Day
The real story of Mother’s Day is beginning to be be recognized. What is so often thought of as a day to be nice to your mother has far more complexity, spirituality, and politics sewn into it than most contemporary people know. No matter how you slice it, the history of Mother’s Day is intimately […]
Dear 20 Year Old Self
Dear Lil, I’m writing from the future to give you some advice; you really need it and you don’t have friends who will tell you the truth, your family is unsupportive, absent, or just plain wacko, and you are on your own thought you won’t really understand and internalize how terribly alone you are for […]
F is for Feminist and It Is Not an "F Word"
F is for Feminist I believe that some of the young women who did not, and still may not, like the word Feminist have started to understand why Later Born Baby Boomers as well as women of the preceding generations still use the word. This makes me sad. Words that end with isms and ists […]