Article March 29, 2010 Issue

THOUGHTS ON TRUE WOMANHOOD

BY MARDI VAN WINKLE

When I was a girl, I liked to spin in circles. I would run out on the front lawn and open my arms wide, turning slowly at first and then faster. The world would spin out into a multicolored blur. Soon I would fall on the grass and watch the colors refocus.

When I got a little older, I learned how to "spot." Spotting is a balancing skill using an inner focus. My ballet teacher always said, "Find your axis, your core, and keep it steady. Let your neck, your arms, legs, everything about you come from your core." Then I could easily spin without getting dizzy. I had harnessed a certain power.

Through the teachings of Christian Science, I've come to see how this concept relates to my life. As a single woman, divorced with a young child to raise, I had to learn how to practice finding the wholeness and inner balance of my spiritual selfhood. I could have viewed myself at a disadvantage, isolated without a mate. But this view always threw me off-center, like a bird trying to fly with only one wing.

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