Bits of Yarn, Calico and Velvet Scraps                                                            Page 21

This feels important. Life has led me this far, even

through death, and nothing is wasted in the end.

Something comes to birth from all that has gone

before, as long as I am not tempted to worship at

the shrine of Certainty.

Now that my garment has fallen away I have only

my body and its wisdom to go by: Woman in the

divine image. Body Wisdom, Woman Wisdom.

Social, sexual, sensual, earthy and life-giving;

entirely related to creation and to bringing to birth.

We (women) bring something other than

children into the world, we engender something

other than children: love, desire, language, art,

the social, the political, the religious, for

example. But this creation has been forbidden

us for centuries, and we must reappropriate this

maternal dimension that belongs to us as

women.

Luce Irigaray