Living in a one-room cabin without running water, plumbing, telephone, or television in rural Alaska presented quality time to view my life–past, present, and future–in a different perspective.   As a new single woman who had recently turned 40 and just completed a full year of graduate studies in culture and communication before my spouse journeyed a different path, I passionately sought a direction for purpose and fulfillment to fill the loss gap of an intense relationship.

 

It was good.  It was destined.  My journals describe my Alaskan survival experiences, insight into womanhood that my Mother instilled in me, the struggle between the “normal woman” and myself, and my growing conviction to introduce a different way for women to understand Woman.  There was nothing new nor different to seek.  It was an uncovering or a peeling off the thickly layered culturally accepted ideas of who Woman is and her role in society.

 

The amazing discovery was that I had been on this journey my entire life.  In a small rural Alaskan town there were very limited literary resources, but I grabbed every book about women I could get my hands on, mostly from discarded books left in a crumpled cardboard box on the laundromat counter with “free books” scribbled on a torn flap.   It was a lucky day when I found Judy St. George’s Sacajawea, which I devoured in less than two days.  Learning about how other women were living their lives became an obsession.

 

It was clear that I was at a pinnacle in life and the little cabin was the birthplace of a new person with a new understanding and vision of purposeful living.

 

My blog so far has three categories:  Thoughts, Cabin Life, Women Being.  Thoughts are just that.   Random thoughts about events, places, ideas in my environment.  Cabin Life are my experiences, some very detailed, living in rural Alaska, which I often refer to as my “Walden Experience.”  Women Being are my interactions with other women as I try to live the life I discovered in the cabin, which I defined as helping to redefine women and their roles in society.  Urgh!  The incredulous lessons I am still learning about myself (at the mercy of other women’s actions–or my reactions toward their actions) seem the upshot of these experiences.  Sometimes it’s like “herding cats!”  More about that in the blogs.

 

Coming soon—-info on WND Women’s Retreats.

 

 © Jennifer Lee and WomenNewDefinitions.Wordpress.com, October 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from Jennifer Lee and WomenNewDefinitions.WordPress.com is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jennifer Lee and WomenNewDefinitions.Wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.