Lucy shared her goals collage today in Learning Strategies. She was proud of her goal to become a lawyer. She said that the pictures encouraged her to keep working as hard as possible so she could reach her goal. She even shared that she hung her collage on top of her sacred learning environment so she could look at it every morning when she does her freewriting (Teacher reflection notes, 2004).

Some women in our class cannot even conceive how to make their personal space special.One woman who lives in a shelter claims she did not know how to create a special place for herself in her room.Since she did not possess her own space, she did not even know that she had a choice to design a special place of her own.So what can those women, who are homeless or simply cannot have a space of their own, do about creating sacred space?Some women have struggled with creating sacred space because they simply had no idea how to create space within a place that they did not own or one that was constantly filled with other people.

Brenda, a 20 year-old soft-spoken immigrant from Haiti, found a way to create a sacred environment at work.She said that at home, there was always too much noise at all times of the day.However, she realized that at work she could find a quiet space for at least part of her night shift.She knew that it was not a large space, but she recognized it as her own for that small amount of time when she would sit and freewrite or do her homework.

Finding a space of one’s own and having the resources to make it beautiful is not always easy.However, we try to help the women understand that space can be developed with imagination and creativity.We also try to reinforce that making an area worthy and beautiful is an ongoing process.