Our Story

We met in the summer of 2013, sharing a ride to the Women’s Herbal Conference in New Hampshire. At that time, we were both involved in organizing gatherings for women and in studying women’s spirituality and traditional practices across the globe. From the beginning we connected deeply, and quickly realized we shared many common interests, including a strong calling towards empowering women and specifically working with elder women to honor their roles in society.

We had been part of women circles and gatherings in Brooklyn for many years and had been seeking the opportunity to share these experiences with older women. Both of us shared complementary perspectives about old age and dying and felt called to work to contribute to a transformation of how Elders are treated in Western contemporary culture, separated as they so often are from the rest of society, ignored or forgotten, their usefulness and dignity undermined rather than honored.

 

In April 2015, we facilitated the first Wisdom Care Circle in Hudson Pointe Riverdale Nursing Home. Ten beautiful strong and wise women attended our first circle, some of whom were not able to communicate verbally, but who showed up with their hearts open. During the first session women were puzzled, but very curious. With every session their sense of trust, surrender and curiosity increased to the point that women began arriving to the space an hour before our sessions and waiting for us. When we arrived, they would welcome us clapping, with tears in their eyes.

We continue holding circles every month at this facility, and the group has now grown to 25 women. It is because of the beautiful and very encouraging feedback we received from these nursing home residents and staff that we decided to expand our work to reach more women. 

It is an honor for us to be able to share our experiences and knowledge with elder women as well as to learn from the incredibly vast wisdom they have to offer.