I have been thinking a lot lately about gatherings of women. Women have a history of caring collaboration that stretches backwards across the centuries. These traditions include safe spaces where women supported and encouraged one another.
Having worked in a living history museum depicting the year 1836, I’m familiar with some of the history and tradition of shared work among women. Just as families might work together to raise a barn, women themselves might tackle large projects by collaborating. Among these were dying fabrics, shelling peas, or snapping beans and of course, finishing quilts. Some chores such as shelling peas, could be made easier with another pair of hands or two. Other, larger projects such as finishing a full-sized quilt benefited from many skilled hands.
Women have worked together, creatively collaborated, and in the process shared the burdens of life with one another.
A quilting bee may have been both productive and social in nature, but it was also a safe place for women of all ages to connect and learn from one another. Younger women might gain ideas for caring for their home or raising children. Older women might have opportunities to provide insight and wisdom based on their lived experiences.
Today, more than ever perhaps, I think women are in need of finding safe and soft places to land.
Places where we can have a voice in the face of all of life’s challenges. Navigating all of life’s big challenges is hard and we all need trusted female companions with whom we can share our personal stories.
In her eBook titled #Ihaveyourback Success Groups, author Caroline Adams Miller, MAPP, PCC writes about the challenges women continue to face including the ways in which women treat one another. While women lag behind men in many cases they also treat other women unfairly, particularly in the workplace. Rather than living into our skills of collaboration, connection, seeking to bring others to the table, women sometimes still seek to diminish one another rather than lift each other up.
While I could expound upon my own thoughts or experiences about this phenomenon, what I think is most important is finding ways to build bridges and connect one another. How do we go about doing that? In these harrowing times in our world, I think we could strive to generously support, encourage, lift and celebrate one another.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this.
I long to come together around a massive, metaphorical quilt and have deep and supportive conversations with other women. I’ve been thinking a lot about creating a safe space for that. I wonder if that is something you would be interested in. Does this idea resonate with you?
Share your thoughts here about your needs as a woman. What would be most helpful in this season of your life? As you consider these questions, I hope you find yourself curious to learn more. Explore with me what a women’s group might look like to you. I’m curious and I hope you are too.
If this resonates with you, let’s chat!
Click here to schedule a no-charge, 20 minute conversation where we will learn more about one another. In that conversation you will learn more about my coaching style and experience. I will listen carefully to your needs. Together we will determine if collaborating is the right fit for both of us.
