Darlings,

So, next week, my daughter Maggie leaves for camp. It’s a big deal, leaving for camp.  She and I won’t be together for 7 weeks, except for one visiting day. And guess when her departure is? Yup. You guessed it. It is the morning of the Graduation of Mastery 2013. I have to be on site at 7:30 a.m., and Maggie leaves for camp at 8:30. Meaning, I will not get to send her off. Meaning, my wee one will have no tearful goodbyes, no one waving her off. Disappointing. Heartbreaking. For both of us.

Until, Sisterhood to the rescue.

My best chum Lyddie, from college, who is a full-fledged Sister Goddess, heard my difficult spot and had so much compassion for me and Maggie, that she offered to drive in from the Berkshires, pick Maggie up, and take her to camp. Better still, she offered to take my Mom, too, so Maggie would have her Grandma there. We are so covered. I was so touched, blown away, and filled with gratitude, tears poured down my face. To be that loved, that supported, that stood for. Sisterhood.

This weekend, I watched another outpouring of Sisterhood, as two women from my Creation Course organized a full-on party to celebrate the completion of the course, with a DJ, live performance art, personalized custom-designed roasts and ceremonies, vegan food, partying nonstop til 3 a.m. The love and attention that they have for and with one another is like nothing I have ever seen or experienced. Each woman’s contribution was seen and celebrated.

Sisterhood.
Sisterliness.
What does that mean exactly?

It means we turn out for each other’s charitable endeavors. We open our homes for travelling Sister Goddesses, no matter where we are in the world. If a Sister is having a bad day, a heartbreak, a health crisis, we rally. We stand. She is not alone. We are not alone.

It means that the country—the world—is loaded with women who can be counted on to laugh their panties off with one another. Women who can cry with wild abandon in each other’s arms, share their outrageous dreams, encourage and expand the dreams of one another. Women who insist on each other’s beauty, passion, and full-throttle joy.

In a world where light, passion, desire, outrageousness, and pleasure are not understood or revered, there exists an ever-expanding community of women who value all of the aspects of womanhood—both in themselves and in each other.

Why does this thrill me to my tiny toes?

Because for the last 5,000 years or so, women have woven their sense of community with one another by sharing their problems, their complaints, their suffering, their disappointments, their betrayals. There is no woman alive who does not have a story of profound abuse, of being misunderstood, ignored, or overlooked.

The triumph here, in this, the State of the Pleasure Revolution Address, is that there is an ever-expanding culture of women whose experience of joy has overtaken their experience of sorrow. Whose experience of community has overtaken their sense of isolation.  Whose experience of the celebration of the opportunity of being a woman has overtaken and transformed her personal tragedy.

Sisterhood.
Sisterliness.

I am filled with such deep gratitude to have lived to see the community of women redefining itself in my lifetime. Realigning a woman through the experience of pleasure changes everything. The way she loves her children, her husband, her girlfriends, the privilege of living her life. Why? Because in a community of deep, rich multi-dimensional relationships with women, if your Mama is not present for you, there is a Sister who gives you some “mama.” If the love of your life has not appeared yet, there are so many flavors of Sisterly love and affection to keep you sleek and shining with appreciation and fun as you move towards finding partnership. When a deep crisis occurs, it is your Sisters who hold you up and keep you close while you find your footing again.

Sisterhood centers us.  Reminds us of who we are, teaches us so that we can locate our joy no matter what the circumstances, takes us back to ourselves as source, when we have blown off course and given our power away.  It means that no matter the legacy of our childhood, the circumstances of our relationships, who our mother was, our husband, our boyfriend, our job, or lack of job, we are each pure, raw potential, capable of replanting ourselves in the fertile soil of Sisterhood, and reinventing ourselves, surrounded by love.  I am so filled with gratitude to you for supporting and participating in the growth of this Revolutionary Community. A Revolution of Sisterhood, sourced by love, joy, and the Divine Feminine.

Got a Sister you’d like to shout out here, someone you’d like to share gratitude for? Celebrate her here by leaving her a love note here in the blog comments.

And if you’ve got a woman in your life that you know could use a Sister (or 1,000s of sisters), pass this blog along to her.

With so much love and pleasure,
Mama Gena

photos: lizlinder.com