WOWW!

When we first met at the SCN conference, Debi told me about a group of women she had bonded with while taking a class on "art with a different intention." When the class ended, they decided to continue meeting once a month. Thus, WOWW was born - Women of Wisdom and Wonder. I was under the impression that it was a closed group, so never gave it much thought.

Shortly after we returned from the conference, I received an email from Debi. She explained that one of the WOWW members was a textile artist, and had put together a workshop that she was hoping to teach out at Old Oaks Ranch. She needed some warm bodies to practice on, and they were wondering if I'd like to join them the next day. Heck Yeah!

I had all sorts of expectations about this adventure, and every last one of them was wrong. First of all, judging from the location of the house where we would be meeting, I was picturing one of those perfectly decorated houses that were featured on the annual home tour. Instead I found an amazing, but very comfortable home that was far from perfect, with evidence of the owners' many passions scattered here and there - much like ours. A "livin' the good life" home.

Next, I expected the workshop to be about technique, and since I couldn't knit, felt, crochet or weave, I wondered how on earth I would participate. Instead, it was about the creative process, and coming up with new ideas. Cheryl, who was leading the class, makes fabulous form-fitting dresses that she weaves from spiral cut strips of hand-dyed leather, and I realized that I had been seeing her work at the Renaissance Festival for years. She talked a bit about her own creative process, then set a shallow wooden tray in the middle of the table, pulled out all sorts of markers, beads, clay, fabric scraps, jewelry bits, wire, and various other things she had scavenged from her studio, and told us "Let's see what you can do with this." I haven't had that much fun since back before the first person ever told me "No, you are doing it all wrong!" A couple of hours later we had created a mysterious lake with beaded waterfalls, which was filled with everything from creatures of the abyss to flying jelly fish.

I expected this to be a one-time invitation based on their need for extra bodies, but began to wonder if I wasn't being checked out. Then they started talking about future events, assuming that I would be there. When one woman asked "Well, are we weird enough for you?", as if she thought I was judging them, I gave up trying to figure things out.

The expectation that I was most wrong about was my assumption that I would feel intimidated by these extremely talented women, who were artists, writers, musicians, teachers, and a few who did all of the above! Instead I found that for the first time ever, I was in a room full of women who kind of thought like I did. Every oddball book that I had ever read and loved, they had read too. While we held many of the same interests, they had many different passions too, as well as differing religious and political views, but instead of arguing over who's right and who's wrong, there was an open-minded sharing of ideas. Rather than intimidation, I would have to say what I felt was more like....coming home.