The Blue Cotton Gown: A Midwife's Memoir (Beacon Press, Boston Oct. 2008) is now available on www.amazon.com and in most major bookstores. The Blue Cotton Gown is not about birth but about caring for women throughout the life-span.

It addresses such universal, contemporary issues as drug abuse, teen pregnancy, menopause, mother-guilt, infertility, domestic violence, transgender change, midlife sexuality, keeping a marriage together and the crisis in the US health care system.  Sound like a lot? All in a day's work for any health care provider who takes the time to listen.  The book is receiving excellent reviews, is a compelling read and makes a great discussion tool.

The new curriculum “Becoming Women of Wisdom: Marking the Passage into the Crone Years” may now be purchased!

Some of you saw a proof of the program or participated in a workshop at the International Convocation of U*U Women. This new "croning" curriculum may be ordered now.

Download the flyer at the UU Women & Religion online store at http://www.uuwr.org. Click on STORE in the left side menu.

This curriculum in 13 circles is designed to prepare women who are entering or have passed through menopause to take on the important role of Crone/Wise Women in their communities and to  participate in a ritual celebrating becoming a woman of wisdom.  The program helps open the participant  to the power, wisdom, and insight of the mature self. 

Imagine entering the labyrinth of your psyche, slowly following its turns in and out as you weave yourself toward the deep center of your essential knowing.  As you make your way forward, you remember the past, integrate its  lessons and shed its excess baggage, until you come to the present moment of  possibility and transformation. 

There you claim the beauty and truth that can be yours and begin your walk out of the labyrinth, integrating your new found knowledge and the thirteen guiding principles of a crone as you retrace your steps.

Before you reemerge into the world, you celebrate your new state and assume the crown and mantle of  the crone. As a mature woman of action and compassion, you claim your power as a woman of wisdom.

The curriculum was written by Melody Lee, in collaboration with co-creators Karen Edwards and Dorothy Emerson. For more information, please contact Dorothy at Rainbow Solutions, 781-391-6455 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Sherri writes:

I am a member of the UU Congregation of Frederick in Maryland.  I attend a women's group at the UU Congregation of Loudoun in Leesburg, VA.  I live an equal distance from the two churches in Harpers Ferry, WV.  My vocational calling is as a clinical social worker.  I've worked in mental health settings as a case manager/mental health therapist/outreach worker and as a bereavement counselor for a local hospice.  I'm in the process of starting my own private counseling practice.
 
I was first introduced to Unitarian-Universalism when I participated in a women's group at Mount Vernon Unitarian Church in the early 1990's.  This metamorphosed into another group which came together to do the "Rise Up" curriculum.  It was a close group of women who met for several years and began a tradition of yearly retreats in the Blue Ridge mountains.
 
I began attending services at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Arlington and became a member in 1999.  I was married at the Mount Vernon church in 2000.  When I moved to West Virginia, I joined the Loudoun congregation and then moved on to the Frederick one because my family sought a larger congregation with a more dynamic RE program.