Womb of Life = Relatives = We
Crucifix, by Amber Alexander
For a long time we’ve lived under an illusion of separateness….Now we’re learning that the universe is actually constructed as a We.
Dance of the Dissident Daughter
Sue Monk Kidd
I’ve finally finished Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd. There are a few books that have created a turning point in my life – titles that helped me to pivot towards something new. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L’Engle, for instance, or Not All of Us are Saints by Dr. David Hilfiger, Traveling Mercies by the priestess herself, My Name is Asher Lev by the mystic/artist Chaim Potok, A New Kind of Christian by the Godfather. I suspect Dance…Daughter is going to be one of those books that I look back on and say, “Ahhhh….that’s where it began. (Although, truthfully I came to these thoughts via fiction, as usual. I find that fiction gives me strands of spider silk first, leaving the nonfiction texts to help me pull together a web of thoughts. I rarely start by jumping off from a place of un-storied ideas. My first fictional muses in the world of the feminine face of God were The Red Tent by Anita Diamant and A Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, followed in an odd sort of way by The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, Rebecca Wells. Sorry, I digress….but don’t you just love a good list of books?)
Often, as I read this book, I thought “Wow, this woman is weird.” Then last week I was at a reception for the godfather when a fellow postmodern practitioner said to me, “When I hear you speak I think ‘We are doing the same thing.’ But when I read your blog, I think you’re so weird.’”
Splash. Shock. Cold water in my face.
At the time I laughed it off and said, “That’s because I am weird.” I mean, come on, I take my kids to belly dancing temples and wax nostalgic about naked bikers. But later I thought that really, it’s not so much that I’m weird, as that I’m a woman. Women haven’t had a voice… haven’t named God…haven’t created worship practices for the church…haven’t decided upon the cannon…or written the creeds…or been allowed to contribute to the wholeness, the shalom-ness of the story we find ourselves in. So sometimeswe can sound weird — because we are foreign, other, odd.
But we’ve got a bead on something, you know. There’s stuff the body of Christ is missing out on, and even more so, stuff that’s missing in the kingdom because we’ve been silenced and sidelined. (And don’t even get me started about how much more this is true about ethnic minorities…there’s literally a world of stuff we’re missing because of their omission from “leadership.”)
For instance, here’s one concept that Sue Monk Kidd brings to the table. (pp. 154 ff) What if we think of God, not so much as “Father,” but as “Creator” or even “Birther.” What if we have a concept of Mama God/Papa God. What if all that came into being in Genesis was birthed into being? What if the earth and her creatures, and Adam and Eve, and all the people throughout time and space came forth from the same womb, were baptized in the same uterine waters? What if we were all, really, siblings? What would that concept do to foster shalom, to encourage peace, to bring the world into right relationship?
All from one womb.
We’ve cut ourselves off from this image, this reality. What might happen if we take it back? Seriously, it boggles the mind.
Hurrah, Rachelle! I started cheering when I read the middle of the post about women. Yeah! What would it look like with our voices? Actually, what will it look like with our voices!
Love this post. What a great book list. I’ve read most of them and now I have a new list to start on. The Red Tent also rocked my world and I love M. L’Engle and Anne Lamott. Doesn’t she have a new book out??
Thanks, as always, for letting us hear your voice.
amazing rachele! all from one womb, baptized by the uterine waters - beautiful thoughts - this is why they have been lost - the destroyer knows the full expression will bring shalom and peace.
thanks for using your voice–what a great way to introduce and further the feminine face of G-d…if we as women begin to read the text together…aloud, intertwined, with the life giving energy and nurturance that comes from the womb of a woman, what depths and riches we will find in the Incomprehensible Eternal One, who is Mystery, life giving and nurturing by definition…
my long journey to a place of voice has found a fellow sojourner in your words…we are all dissonant daughters with dances and movements and songs and melodies and harmonies…and more to bring to the text and awaken new meanings and nuance.
you are not wierd, just wondrously unique!
rock on…
oops…typo-
…”dissident daughters” though our melodies are often disregarded as dissonant;)
ps- great book list as well, always a treat to find familiar friends on the shelf…
Never having heard you speak, i have only your written words to go by–and you are quite a person thereby. Your parishioner should give her/his head a shake, in my view…
And I still envy you the Fremont Arts Council and all that goes with it!
When I read DDD, I felt as if I had stepped through a door that only opened one way. Something landed in my gut and settled into place. I haven’t been the same since, but I can’t put my finger on why. Thanks for reading the book and letting it affect you, too. It makes me not feel so alone.
Great post rachelle. I’m about halfway through reading “Dance of the Dissident Daugher”, and I love it! Next on my reading list is “Plan B” which I’m really looking forward to…
You’re right about fiction, it’s a powerful spiritual tool. I just finished reading Ann Marie MacDonald’s “The Way the Crow Flies” — amazing reading, with so many teaching metaphors and opportunties for learning. It’s a hard book to read because of the sad storyline, but well worth it.
Rach
There’s a chapter in my book out of bounds church? that uses midwifing as a central imageand explores the God of Old Testament as breastfeeding, mothering and applies this to emerging church stuff.
You might also find helpful the book by Margaret Hamer, Giving birth, reclaiming biblical metaphor for pastoral practice, 1994.
nice to connect in San Diego - Steve t
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