In Sweet Company

The book, In Sweet Company: Conversations with Extraordinary Women about Living A Spiritual Life by Margaret Wolff, floored me when I read it. It is a collection of interviews with 14 women of different ethnic, professional, and religious backgrounds about their personal spirituality. What intrigued me was the variety of women interviewed: from faith leaders who offered me ageless wisdom; to women of different ethnic backgrounds, whose personal spirituality broadened, as well as refined, my own; to the career professionals, whose efforts to bring spirituality into everyday routine, serve as role models for me to do the same.

In Sweet Company became the impetus behind creating the discussion groups. To say that there was something on each page that made me pause and think is an understatement! If I were the type to highlight my books, my copy would be virtually florescent yellow. And yet, I am the type of person who doesn't retain knowledge simply by reading - I require discussion or real-life applications to fully digest a concept and make it my own. The discussion groups are an invitation to join me in sharing and growing.

If you are still holding back due to your busy schedule, this particular book lends itself to you. At each meeting, we discuss a different interview, and each interview is with a different woman. In other words, each evening's discussion is self-contained and does not rely upon having read the other interviews. After we have met, use the list below to access the suggested questions that we used as a starting point for discussion. Even if you cannot join us physically, you can lend your presence in thought and spirit. While you can check the calendar to find out when we meet next, if you are joining us for the first time, please contact me to find out which interview we are reading next.

• Sister Helen Prejean: author of Dead Man Walking
• Grandmother Twylah Hurd Nitsch: Wisdom Leader of the Seneca Tribe
• Miriam Polster: pioneer in the field of Gestalt psychotherapy
• Alma Flor Ada: Fulbright scholar, children's author, renowned educator
• Reverend Lauren Artress: reviver of labyrinths as a spiritual tool
• Olympia Dukakis: Academy Award winning actress
• Riane Eisler: Holocaust survivor, author of The Chalice and the Blade, president of the Center for Partnership Studies
• Le Ly Hayslip: Vietnam refugee, author of When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, founder of The Global Village Foundation
• Zainab Salbi: founder of Women For Women International
• Katherine Dunham: Kennedy Center Honors Award recipient, dancer, choreographer, anthropologist
• Margaret J. Wheatley: management consultant, president of the Berkana Institute, author of Leadership and the New Science
• Rabbi Laura Geller: third woman rabbi in the history of Reform Judaism, teacher, social activist
• Gail Williamson: 1999 National Mother of the Year, executive director of the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles
• Sri Daya Mata: Third president of the Self-Realization Fellowship