Respect of our Cycle

"How might it have been different for you if, on your first

menstrual day, your mother had given you a bouquet of flowers

and taken you to lunch, and then the two of you had gone to meet

your father at the jeweler, where your ears were pierced, and your

father bought you your first pair of earrings, and then you went

with a few of your friends and your mother's friends to get your

first lip coloring; and then you went,

for the very first time,

to the Women's lodge,

to learn

the wisdom of women?

How might your life have been different?"

Judith Duerk, Circle of Stones