Evening of Fun!

Join us for a Wonderful Womanhood, Evening of Fun!

This month we are celebrating Nobility in Motherhood and Joy in Womanhood.  Join us for a fun night of remembering the value and beauty of being a woman!

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

6:30 pm

at the Cultural Hall

Light refreshments served

(don't forget your cookies if you signed up!)

Compete in the 'Motherhood Marathon'

(or cheer on those who do)

Lots of fun--all young women are invited also, along with daughters, sisters, friends or mothers!!

It seems as this theme of womanhood was coming up, I was guided to read many things about our role and importance as woman, that strengthened me and made me feel truly loved and valued as a woman in a world where so much emphasis is put on being equal to man, or better, or able to stand alone.  The following struck me with it's power and it's beauty, and how simple Bible stories that we have been taught all of our lives can have new and profound meaning when seen from the eyes of someone else....

I recently read an excerpt from a book by an LDS woman who spent many years as a marriage and family counselor.  She tells a story of being taken to a restaurant deep in the heart of Beijing, China that had beautiful gardens and art with ancient, traditional, symbolic features.  On two opposing walls of the interior were 'magnificent' murals, about five feet high and seven feet wide.  These are her descriptions of them:

'In one mural, a heroic figure was rending the darkness with a bolt of brilliant light.  (remember that before Adam was created physically, he was 'Michael' and assisted the Savior in the creation of the earth?)The artist had strewn "matter unorganized" about, suggesting the use of those elements as the world was coming together.  The other mural showed a walled garden, inhabited by two people.  Central to that work were a glorious woman and a magnificent tree laden with fruit.  It was a peach tree and near the tree was a monkey.'

She asked about their meaning and the host said that he did not know much, that they dated from another time and belief system.  He did say 'that in the "lore" there was a story of a man from heaven who rends, with light and attendant sound, the darkness separating heaven and earth.  This heroic creature was on assignment to create a new world.  As to the second mural, he said that it depicted a glorious garden where a majestic woman was created to be a queen and a companion to this man.' 

She asked about the peach and the monkey, and he told her that in their culture the monkey indicated mischief and trickery, the peach was a mystical fruit believed to contain elements of a spiritual nature. 'The woman, he told, needed to eat the peach because she was the one who had to take the next step in the journey of creation--a step equal in importance to rending the darkness.  He understood that it was her job to save those waiting to come through that rent veil by giving them bodies.'  He believed that the depiction of the man as the central figure in on mural and the woman as the central figure in the other represented the 'yin and yang" of Creation, and in ancient lore, both were heroes.

(From "You Don't Need to Slay My Dragons, Just take out the Trash" by: Beverly Campbell)

Doesn't this story make you feel beautiful and valued as a woman, as a 'daughter of Eve'--I hope so, because you are.