1. The papaya, the lemon, the squash. The everything going bad—not yet. I can pickle anything I can save—still. And I am never still. Still…at sixty-four here I am. Rise. This is age—still. 2. I have a passport to somewhere… Read More ›
Women’s Voices
About Bridgerton: A Different Feminist Perspective by Christine Irving
First of all, I’m grateful to Bridgerton for providing several spirited conversations between my friends and me, not to mention the POVs penned recently in these pages. It was fun to take part in exchanges that did not highlight or… Read More ›
Bridgerton: The Next Wrong Thing in Misogynist Television
Why can’t we have nice things? Because the porn industry has infected media, that’s why. I have read several of Julia Quinn’s fanciful romance novels. They contain entertaining and sympathetic stories about the economic and social pressures on gentlewomen of… Read More ›
Good(?) Grief by Esther Nelson
The current pandemic has kicked our collective butt by putting a huge dent in our ability to maintain relationships so necessary for keeping our social gears greased and running smoothly. Grabbing coffee with a friend or meeting up for lunch… Read More ›
In These United States: Georgia is on My Mind by Marie Cartier
Georgia on my mind, so goes the song, and right now the road leads back to you, Georgia. The run-off election which could make two senators blue and give control of the Senate to the Democrats, remove a Republican as… Read More ›
Restoration by Molly Remer
In 2014, I sat on a low wooden bench nursing my 6 week old baby boy while wet plaster strips were laid across my face to create a mask. The final activity of the Rise Up and Call Her Name… Read More ›
Sappy modern carols won’t cut it; Gritty Advent Hope is what we need this year. — by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
As we careen toward ever more terrifying surges in the Covid pandemic, with experts predicting apocalyptic catastrophes by Christmas time, I find myself reacting to the vast majority of modern Christmas songs, stories, movies, and cultural norms with increasing distaste…. Read More ›
A Thanksgiving Litany for Living through Fractious Times by Alla Renée Bozarth
All things being relative, rememberthat collective and individual historiesare cyclical but open-ended, and discernthe kind of moment you are in and part of. Remember how to make it betterby holding on to all that is dear in life,and becoming more… Read More ›
Breathing Life into the Women of Chayei Sarah by Ivy Helman.
One of the basic tenants of feminist methodology in religion is the recovery of women’s history. There are many ways to approach such a task. In religions with sacred writings, one avenue for recovery may be reinterpreting them. This… Read More ›
Feminist Parenting Part 3—Les Misérable Mothers, why is this so %$@# haaaaard?! by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
Life has been challenging lately – I’m sure you can relate. Normal emotional and financial stress are worsened by COVID-19 and the election— and I’ve often said that there’s nothing like motherhood for making us feel like failures… It’s as… Read More ›
The Crafting the Wisdom Loom By Mary F. Gelfand
Over 20 years ago, I randomly came across the following passage from Sonnet X by Edna St. Vincent Millay: Upon this gifted age, in its dark hour, Rains from the sky a meteoric shower Of facts . . . they… Read More ›
The Mask and the Mirror – Part 2 by Sara Wright
Artist Debra Fritts When I asked Debra about this circle she said “the circle around the eye is symbolic of the moon, a nightly ritual of seeing the moon.” Curiously, women as ‘seers’ have an intimate relationship with… Read More ›
Embroidery in the Time of Covid by Esther Nelson
In her recent essay on this “Feminism and Religion” site, Ivy Helman wrote: “Over the past few months, I’ve been struggling to write posts. This month is no different. I am currently sitting with four different half-drafts on three semi-related… Read More ›
Child of the Earth by Elizabeth Cunningham
I have a vivid childhood memory of being sick with the stomach flu and standing in the doorway of my parents’ bedroom looking for my mother. Her care for sick children was tender and thorough. She would bring us ginger… Read More ›
The Quality of Mercy by Barbara Ardinger
The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes… This speech (Act IV, scene 1) from The… Read More ›
White Monkey Chronicles by Isabella Ides
A gift from author Isabella Ides: Hello FARsighters!! This is more of an announcement than an article. My novel, WHITE MONKEY CHRONICLES, which has been reviewed by Elizabeth Cunningham on the FAR site, will be offered for FREE for five days, Oct 1st through… Read More ›
Bareskin by Sara Wright
When we meet our deep brown eyes mirror a mutual need for light to penetrate human darkness. Your eyes are wary and fearful; Mine hunger for your touch. I cry out softly “Don’t be afraid… I love you”. We share… Read More ›
Subversive Sister Saints by Angela Yarber
As the American Embassy was bombed in 1999, I was hunkered in a Russian Orthodox Church, gazing at the brooding, whitewashed faces of icons, hands raised in endlessly frightening benediction. Hundreds of men met my eye, as I found myself… Read More ›
May Her Memory Be A Revolution by Anjeanette LeBoeuf
On the eve of the Jewish Sabbath and the start of Rosh Hashanah, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg breathed her last breath. She was 87. She fought so hard for so long. She is an American patriot, hero, champion… Read More ›
Re-Visioning Medusa: Part I by Sara Wright
All through my childhood a self-portrait, painted by my mother hung above my parents’ bed. I was fascinated by this image of the stern face of my very beautiful mother with her long wavy chestnut hair. In the painting my… Read More ›
Where Am I Going? by Esther Nelson
My sense of direction is, at best, poor. In spite of that, I love a road trip. With the advent of affordable GPS (Global Positioning System) devices, driving long distances has become easier. Unfortunately, that tool (GPS) is not always… Read More ›
Abandonment Trauma: Facing the Pandemic With My Fists-up by Karen Leslie Hernandez
Content Warning: Mention of childhood abuse, abandonment, suicide, trauma and death. I am a successful product of child abandonment. Raised in an abusive home, my mother left when I was in 7th grade. From that point on, I spent an… Read More ›
Morning Meditation by Sara Wright
I have just returned from the brook where I offered up my Toad Moon prayers to the song of the Hermit thrush and to the rippling waters – first honoring my body with a poem written just for her, and… Read More ›
What’s Changed? by Elise M. Edwards
Friends, it has been a few months since I’ve posted in this community. I’m amazed at how much our world has changed since then. Here in the northern hemisphere, spring came and went. It felt like a tide of turmoil… Read More ›
Navigating Meaning in Unchartered Ways by Natalie Weaver
The ideas that here follow are an effort to organize insights from meditation practice over the past several months. I submit them to FAR not because they are particularly profound or even well-developed but because I am, as everyone is, navigating… Read More ›
I Don’t Mean to Brag, But I Cry a Lot by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
It’s true. I don’t mean to make you jealous, but lately, I have at least one long session of really great crying most days. What I call the “lovely cry,” where my face gets all red and swollen and puffy,… Read More ›
Dr. Signature’s Whoopee Pack by Barbara Ardinger
As I write this in late June, the news is still pretty depressing. Pandemic. Politics. Corruption. No no no. I can’t write anything current and cheery, so here’s another bit of distracting nonsense from my so-called archive. Back in the… Read More ›
Eve, Revisited by Jill Hammer
About six months ago I was hired to write a curriculum for a Jewish organization on biblical women in ancient and contemporary midrash. Midrash—the ancient process of creative interpretation of sacred text that began two thousand years ago and continues… Read More ›
Poem: An Ode for Nurses during a Pandemic by Marie Cartier
— for Alex, a nurse I met who is also a poet, and all nurses I heard that you are a poet and a nurse. I imagine all the nurses who also are something else—a chef, a Mom,… Read More ›
All the Perils of this Night: a preview by Elizabeth Cunningham
When I wrote Murder at the Rummage Sale, my agent warned: “You have to have a sequel in mind!” I was supposed to write a second domestic cozy, same setting, same characters, different victim. But what came to mind was… Read More ›
