How I Became a Rowdy Goddess
The Path to the Rowdy Goddess
It took a long time to become a Rowdy Goddess. It all began, like most stories, when I was a girl. My grandparents had a collie mix dog named Rowdy. He was cool. I’d sit on the porch steps and call, “Here, Rowdy, Rowdy, Rowdy,” and he come running! My mother told me that one time he disappeared for several weeks. Everyone assumed that he had been stolen and then he found his way home. He showed up all raggedy and a little worse for the wear, but home he came!
During my childhood and teenage years–my whole life, really–there have been times when I have felt so connected to the Universe, to something magical and pleasurable. I was sure that magic was out there and I was being called to be a part of it. I recognized the call of Spirit, the call of what I now know to be the call of the Goddess and the God.
When I was in college, I became a member of a fundamental Christian group. I was with them for four years or so. It was not a pleasant experience since my feminist nature kept getting the best of me. “Have you really read this stuff,” I asked after reading some of the Old Testament. They started calling me the “Rowdy Girl.” It was not a compliment. My exuberance kept bubbling over and the jokes and comments were taken amiss.
A little over ten years ago, I started attending (and later teaching there) a wonderful women’s spirituality retreat called Womongathering–www.womongathering.com. It is a fabulous gathering; it is where I met my dear friend Joyce there. We always asked for drum tolerant tents, but somehow our laughter and chatter always bothered someone. We would get shushed.
As a librarian, I know all about shushing. I deplore shushing. After awhile, RoseLee joined us followed by Sharon, Susan and Kim. Our laughter and delight in one another always bubbled over! Shushed again. Oy vey! I then told them my Rowdy Girl story. And since we were Goddess Wimmin, we should consider ourselves Rowdy Goddesses. They liked that idea a lot.
The next year, as I was walking to the assigned cabin, a woman stopped me and said, “I think you are in the noisy cabin.” There was a HUGE, wonderful lot of noise, laughter and talk coming from our usual cabin! Whoo hoo. Maire, Erin, and Diana were there. Everything changed after that.
The people who assigned the cabins have never put anyone next to us after that. We have grown in numbers every year after that; and we use those four days to catch up, take stock, cry, scream, get mad, laugh and retool ourselves. Even though we only see each other once or twice a year, we are dear friends. Like that Rowdy dog of my childhood, we are sometimes a little raggedy and worse for wear, but home we come to each other. As close as any coven or family can ever be. We are the Rowdy Goddesses.
Anyone, woman or man, can be a Rowdy Goddess by truly being true. True to self, true to emotions, true to mind and true to spirit. It is that easy and that difficult.
The Rowdy Goddess 