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Women's Cultural Program
in the Goodenough Community
The women’s cultural program encourages and supports self-development; helps us, as female-identified people of all ages, reach a greater connection with our inner source of feminine strength; celebrates who we are as women; and improves our relationships with our partners, family members, friends, and self. Come join us for one or all of our activities - upcoming dates for our Zoom meetings are September 27 and November 22, 2025 - as well as our in-person weekend at Sahale, May 2-3-4, 2025!
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Sahale Women's Weekend - May 2, 3, 4, 2025
The River of Life
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Who are we now? Who have we been? What lessons do we carry from one age and stage to the next?
What does a passage from one threshold to the next look like? Feel like? What gifts and advice do we want to pass to each other?
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Back by popular demand, our weekend starts Friday night with dinner at 6pm. After dinner, we will circle up, welcome each other, and create our container for the weekend. Saturday will bring song, story, meditation, and an exploration of the archetypes of women:
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maiden - mother - guardian - crone
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We will take the time to craft rituals for those who are passing from one age to another, and prepare ourselves to steward these passages with grace, wisdom, and richness.
Sunday will hold deepening trust and a sound bath voyage, and we will guide those flowing from one archetype into another. Is it your turn to transition? Play, grief, songs and joyous celebration will all emerge in the fullness of our time together.
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Early Bird Pricing
Sliding Scale: $200* - $225 - $250 pay if forward if you can
Include additional $50 if registering after April 15th
*please reach out if more accommodation is needed*
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Your admission price includes all meals from Friday dinner through lunch Sunday, plus lodging, hot tub, and support for our Women's Culture fund.
For more information, please reach out to Laura at alwaysgrowingdesign@gmail.com
Women’s Program​
The Women’s Culture of the Goodenough Community is a long-established and ever-growing way for women to enjoy each other’s company, learn about themselves as women, and even perhaps to experience the Divine Feminine.
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Our curriculum is designed to open up a way for us to look inside ourselves and to share whatever we want our companions (and ourselves) to know. We develop the curriculum in response to the lives of the women who participate in the program, and draw on the wisdom of the ages as well as modern psychological and spiritual understandings.
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Our gatherings throughout the year include a time of introspection, a time of gathering and joining with others, and plenty of time to listen to others and to share our hearts. We often sing, breathe, and meditate together. We use our Community's Code of Conduct as a way to guide ourselves as we work together to deepen our relationships. We find that opening ourselves to other women is indescribably satisfying and uplifting. Each woman is free to participate to the extent that is right for her.
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About Our Leadership
Our curriculum draws on a body of teaching developed by Colette Hoff over a period of more than 50 years on such topics as the Living Arts, right relationship, human development, mental health, and the Perennial Wisdom.
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Founder of the program in 1983, Colette was in the Crone phase of life. She had a special vocation in working with women’s issues as she supported and encouraged women through their life-stage transitions and on their spiritual journeys.
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Now, Laura Sweany is the focal for the women’s culture leadership team, with team members Elizabeth Jarrett-Jefferson, Sue-Marie Casagrande, Rosemary Buchmeier, Maryann Schumacher, and, as Emeritus, Hollis Guill Ryan.
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For more information about the Women's Program
email Laura Sweany at alwaysgrowingdesign@gmail.com
Articles
Our library offers articles on topics of interest
to the Goodenough Women's Culture.
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Why We Have a Women's Culture by Hollis Guill Ryan
The Crone Archetype
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Valuing a Culture of Women by Colette Hoff
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How to Form a Women's Culture by Colette Hoff