The painful sadness of women's isolation was balanced
by the delightful and peaceful joy of the women's group

We came together then, as a very small group. The idea was to bring others in later as they expressed interest in what we were doing. Four women learners, Mary, and I came together for the first time without a specific purpose, except for the woman-positive notion. I expected it to feel a little uncomfortable, but there was no tension. I remember I had arrived tired and a little preoccupied (I had been negotiating with one of our funders that morning). As I sat down and looked at the faces that greeted me, I felt I could relax.

There was a definite expectant sparkle in the eyes of the women. My expression was probably much like theirs - what's going to happen here? But we were all smiling at each other. We talked about the new women's centre, still in the planning stages, and discussed our reasons for wanting it to become a reality. On reflection, I think that this first meeting was the only time we took something external as a focal point.

Actually, the second hour of the group set the format for all subsequent meetings: Each woman talking spontaneously about things that mattered to her. With a sudden chill of recognition, I realized that we were talking about the daily pain and discomfiture of women's lives. The themes were all there: lack of understanding, no power to speak of, limited choices, fear of condemnation. Nobody said that all this originated largely with men. The talk was satisfying and it was self-affirming.

As we went through the first few meetings, I kept experiencing feelings of uncertainty, almost disorientation. It was like - I am here and it feels really good! I ; had to make myself believe that it was okay to feel good in this way. At the same time I was hearing about women's lives and what I was hearing reaffirmed concretely everything I felt and thought I understood about women's lives. It was very mind-expanding. Absolutely like a re-learning for me.

What I didn't know, though, was that I was ignorant of an aspect of women's lives which would be significant in the longer term. I wrote in my journal:

The isolation expressed by the women in the group is isolation from other women. One described her feelings: "I feel I have no [women] friends outside of here. My husband tells me to go out for a while. I say, where shall I go? He says go to a mall and pick up a few things, you'll meet people. there. So I go, and before I know it I've bought some things and I'm ready to go home. I haven't met anybody, I haven't talked to anybody. Men, they can go out and make friends with strangers - go to a bar or something, but women can't do that. It seems as if women can only meet other women if they have men with them."

I wondered about our literacy program. What were we doing for women who felt isolated? "Outside of here I have no women friends." Obviously we are , providing opportunities for women to make friendships and to feel supported. I reflected further: