Woven on the Wind : Women Write about Friendship in the Sagebrush West

by Hasselstrom, Linda M.

• ISBN13: 9780618219209
• ISBN10: 061821920X
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-05-07
• Publisher: Lightning Source Inc

Summary

The grassroots publishing sensation continues with WOVEN ON THE WIND, the second volume of women's writing from the heart of the American West compiled by the editors and ranchers Linda Hasselstrom, Nancy Curtis, and Gaydell Collier. They called on women in sixteen states and provinces to write about their friendships with other women in the West, a subject that they discovered has all too often been overlooked or underplayed. The result is WOVEN ON THE WIND, a unique and exhilarating collection, "a beautiful, intricate mosaic of women as mothers as well as friends" (Fencepost). In a region where time and space are large and solitude is a fact of life, these women tell of the beauties, ironies, rigors, heartbreak, and humor of life and how it is uniquely enriched by friendships past and present. The voices in this volume -- unsentimental, unflinching, and utterly unforgettable -- take readers into the fields, kitchens, barns, and souls of nearly 150 women and reveal a vital part of the real western American story. "Here is the essence of the West -- not the myth, but the truth."

Table of Contents

Introduction: Voices Woven of Wind and Sage	p. xv
My Feet Set Down Roots: The Grounding	p. 1
My Heart Still Grins	p. 5
June and I, Singing	p. 6
Thinking of Rain in the Dry Season	p. 6
No Room for Strangers	p. 7
Dear Judy	p. 10
Letter to a "Friend"	p. 11
Goldie	p. 13
The Rapture	p. 14
Girls' Night Out	p. 14
Something of the Earth	p. 17
Sisters	p. 19
Love and Light	p. 20
Without a Doubt	p. 20
If...	p. 20
Pearls from the Milk	p. 21
Tea with Daphne	p. 23
Preserving	p. 24
Trinity	p. 26
Stella He	p. 28
Aunt Noi	p. 29
The Oddest Daughter	p. 30
Homemade Noodles	p. 33
The Path	p. 34
Secret Sin	p. 35
Ladies Aid	p. 37
Light	p. 38
Prairie Ocean	p. 41
That's What Neighbors Do	p. 42
Rosario	p. 43
Elvira	p. 44
Six Artists at a Country Retreat	p. 45
Beverly	p. 48
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star	p. 50
Summer Friends	p. 52
Learning How to Be Lonely	p. 53
Dormant Seeds Sprouting	p. 55
Of Potatoes and the Wind	p. 57
Pearls	p. 59
The Art of Living the Moment	p. 61
The Women	p. 63
Sigga	p. 64
Lupe's Song	p. 66
The Lady Who Knew How to Live	p. 67
Resolving Mrs. Wackerly	p. 70
Spun Sugar	p. 72
Capes	p. 73
Wyoming Mother	p. 75
Women in the Rain	p. 77
Belonging to the Black Crows	p. 79
Pink Iron Nails	p. 84
Ghost of April, 1978	p. 86
Joan	p. 88
Some Things Never Change	p. 88
Marriage	p. 92
Up Fortification Creek	p. 93
Divas for a Day	p. 95
Dear Berry	p. 96
Friends for Life	p. 98
A Man's Work	p. 100
Leaves Speak for You: The Nourishing	p. 103
Chokecherries	p. 107
Coming Home	p. 107
Friends Because	p. 110
Letters to Lil	p. 111
Time for Friendship	p. 115
La-vin-i-a	p. 115
There Were No Women	p. 119
Because Men Rule	p. 122
The Reclamation	p. 123
Who Else?	p. 127
Gram's Vegetables	p. 127
At the Prairie, the Day Before	p. 129
Saying Good-bye to 'Nali	p. 131
Backbeat	p. 134
Strung on Sinew	p. 136
Handwork	p. 136
Whatever Works	p. 137
Lessons Learned by Hand	p. 140
Granma's Gloves	p. 143
Old Ladies Go Hunting	p. 143
Muskrat Ramble	p. 146
Spider Beside Her	p. 147
The Storm	p. 147
Passage	p. 152
End of the World	p. 153
Huddled for Warmth	p. 156
Mother Love	p. 156
The Woman, Listening on the Party Line	p. 158
Shifting Gears	p. 159
Co-Madres	p. 162
Barriers of Silence	p. 163
Majesty	p. 166
Hog Wars	p. 167
Don't Step in the Cactus	p. 169
The Night	p. 170
Trying to Remember She Is Now a Man	p. 170
Vi and Me	p. 171
Whistling Girls and Knitting	p. 173
Sybil Harris	p. 174
Barbed Wire and Robert Frost	p. 176
Knowing with the Heart	p. 177
Maybe Slower Is Better	p. 180
Leah, Bright and Dark	p. 181
The Heart Knows	p. 183
The Sunset Cafe	p. 184
At Forty-five	p. 186
Full Monty	p. 190
Living Without Loneliness	p. 191
A Woman's Place	p. 192
Sky, Grass, Rain, and Sage	p. 193
Daily Acts of Courage	p. 195
New Flowers Unfolding: The Promise	p. 197
Oyurushi: Forgiveness	p. 201
The Company of Women	p. 201
She Was Writing	p. 203
The Wedding Shower	p. 204
Linda	p. 206
The Legacy	p. 207
Resurrections	p. 209
The Gift	p. 210
Word	p. 211
Tapestry of Knots	p. 216
Pilgrimage	p. 217
What Makes Our Lives	p. 219
Tea for Two	p. 220
Sisterhood	p. 222
Dear Ann	p. 223
Common Ground	p. 226
Holy Ground	p. 228
The Concubine	p. 231
Anneen	p. 234
Wild roses	p. 239
My Mother's Moccasins	p. 239
Her Soul Lives Here	p. 243
Let the Circle Be Unbroken	p. 245
Melissa	p. 246
Reclaiming Mother's World	p. 248
Matrimony	p. 249
The Shell Game	p. 250
Cycles	p. 252
Alva in the Fields	p. 253
How I Became My Own Woman	p. 254
Defying Bare Branches	p. 256
Dear Quilting Sisters	p. 258
Jean	p. 259
Come Home	p. 263
Before She Left	p. 263
How the West Was Won	p. 265
Car Pool Friendship	p. 267
Circled in Shadows	p. 269
To Breathe on My Own	p. 270
Below Zero--December	p. 272
Cultivating the Iris, Dawn of Change	p. 273
The Waiting	p. 278
To Smooth a Mountain	p. 279
Barefooting Summer	p. 280
The Field Road	p. 281
Community of Stones	p. 289
My Old Aunts Play Canasta in a Snowstorm	p. 290
Contributors	p. 295
Acknowledgments	p. 311
Credits	p. 312
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