She is...

Last night I read a passage in Women Who Run with Wolves that reminded me of La Gorda, the statue below. She stands in Nicaragua and we would pass her on the foot-trail to one of our surf spots last August. I loved her. And the vines. Now I have words to go with her:

"...She is the Life/Death/Life force, she is the incubator. She is intuition, she is far-seer, she is deep listener, she is loyal heart...The birds which tell us secrets belong to her. She is the voice that says, 'This way, this way.' She is the one who thunders after injustice. She is the one who turns like a great wheel. She is the maker of cycles...She is the mucky root of all women. She is the incubator of little ideas and deals...She leaves footprints for us to try for size. She leaves footprints wherever there is one woman who is fertile soil." -from Women Who Run with Wolves, by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D.

The great wheel turns. These women in my life, women of all ages--I learn grace from all of them. I filled a birdbath for an old woman yesterday. It had been a long time since water sparkled there. We sat together, looking at Life, Shimmering.