


Course, I like to live my life as a contradition - and what's what I post here if not sharing personal things with perfect strangers. And anyway, a stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet. Plus, in truth, I don't actually have much trouble sharing personal things with perfect strangers. And who was I kidding anyway? A weekend is actually not long *enough* for me to talk about women and women's issues. And since I knew several people going to

And I had a really great time. I thoroughly enjoyed the space. I enjoyed being able to be in a space of women doing and saying awesome things. I enjoyed learning and hopefully offering something to others. I enjoyed being welcomed into the circle and in turn welcoming others when I could. And it wasn't remotely intimidating or scary and why did I take so long to go in the first place?
I have a lot in my head. I have a lot to think about - about myself, about feminist issues, about people and community issues and about how I can be a better member of the community. I really enjoyed the panel I was on because everyone opened up and so many ideas were shared about motivation and trust. There was so much to take away from it but I think one of the things that really struck me is how often we all beat ourselves up about what we suck at but never really credit ourselves with things we are good at or which we can do with ease. I've been thinking about that a lot. For example, I am really good at and love paper filing. Seriously, if you had a study that you had thrown 5 years of paperwork in and never went in and organised it, I would be really excited if you asked me to come in and sort out your taxes. You'd get an overly organised room with things found you never knew you'd lost and all your papers in alpabetical and chronological order. And I would thank YOU for the opportunity! Aren't you glad you now know that about me? I'm sure I could list a bunch of other things too.
So what's your "oh I love it and it comes so easily thing?" wouldn't it be cool to have a community network to draw on and reinforce each other's strengths