Circle Reflections

Edy Rees attended two sessions of The Women’s Table “Crossroads and Thresholds: Embracing the Second Half of Life.” Please enjoy here reflections.

OUT OF THE WOODS: At a Crossroad
By Edith M. Rees
January 31, 2019

Yesterday was the first of my second quartet of Crossroads sessions. It feels like a lifeline to this lonely sinner. Last Fall’s program was an unexpected blessing, not only for me but for my whole family.
On October 17, 2018 Sister Kathleen began by asking:

• How many of us are Catholic or some other form of Christian?
• How many of us belong to another faith?
• How many of us just live their life?

Three simple, brilliantly inclusive questions formed us into a powerful group of spiritually wise women who held and sustained each other during those four weeks and beyond. Crossroads reflection

Please enjoy this wonderful reflection from Chandra Manning, a participant in The Women’s Table Mother’s Circle.

Circle of Mercy, Circle of Love

In The Chandra Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd writes, “The world will give you that once in awhile, a brief timeout; the boxing bell rings and you go to your corner, where somebody dabs mercy on your beat-up life.”

When I first read those lines, I was on Day 3 of bedrest at the 25th week of pregnancy with my first child, which was about when any restfulness in “bedrest” gave way to worry and stir-craziness. Mercifully, the bedrest order was lifted after a couple of weeks. Now that the “baby” I was awaiting at the time is eleven years old (!!) and has a seven-year-old brother who, like him, lives life on the autism spectrum, the passage captures something important about the Mother’s Circle hosted by the Women’s Table every month. (Download complete reflection below)

Mother’s Circle Reflection_Chandra Manning