My Heart Writes About Catherine Place from India

I came across the note about Catherine Place below in a file recently. I wrote it when I was in India in 2010. It says much about what I hold dear. In Aug. 2011, I joined the Catherine Place staff. Enjoy ~

September 5, 2010, Near Pune, India “How refreshing to find a place (literally) willing to try something new, like the WE-CAN Women’s Circles. This openness renewed my faith and my Spirit, which was worn out from being told all the reasons why something that had never been done before couldn’t be done, wouldn’t work, or wouldn’t be funded. Finally, at last, a place that supports feminine and women’s ways of being and knowing without apology.

Little did I know that renewal would be only the first gift I would receive from the DIVINE Catherine Place. I’ll always remember the day I bounded up the stairs and spoke with Judy and Peg about Cara and I going to Maher in India. Judy’s comment, ‘That feels exactly right’ still rings in my ears and gave me the courage to make all of the necessary, and sometimes difficult, decisions such an endeavor would require. And, I shall always be most grateful for the delicate and powerful blessing the Catherine Place Spirit Circle provided for our journey. I have drawn on it many times already to ward off doubt and worry.

The Poetry Group cannot go unmentioned. It allowed me to express the full measure of my content and dismay. It gave me such joy to hear the innermost expressions of other poets and writers.

The WE-CAN Women’s Circles were intended to ‘encourage and support women as leaders.’ Catherine Place does this and, perhaps even more importantly, supports and encourages women as women. This is vital if ‘The Future of the World Depends Upon Women,’ as Kofi Annan predicted and it is why I hold the vision of a Catherine Place in every city and state in the U.S.

In 1972, Marlo Thomas created Free to Be You and Me. Catherine Place gives women the space and freedom they need to discover and become all that they can be. I miss the energy and Spirit of Catherine Place every day and then I remember — it is with me. You are a Tacoma and a U.S. jewel. Blessings always”