Circle of Stones: Woman’s Journey to Herself, by Judith Duerk (Circle of Stones Series, Volume 1) Innisfree Press, Inc. 1993, 1999.

I picked this book up used because books about women’s issues and spirituality tend to interest me. After I started looking through it, I found that it was part poetry, part meditation, and part workbook. At only 123 pages- and some of the pages are blank or have few words on them- I thought it might be a rip-off. I was wrong; some parts are surprisingly deep for how slight they are.

Even though it says nothing about it on the cover, a surprising amount of writing is devoted to dealing with depression. She looks at depression almost as a normal state- a gift, even, that causes us to look within. Having dealt with depression my entire life, I hate the idea that depression is a normal state. I agree with her that having a circle of women, ones who surround us all our lives, would make it easier to deal with depression, or any mental state, for that matter. (it also bothers me that we are ignoring men with depression)

I do feel it would be good to have these circles of women, good to know we were not alone walking through life. It would be good to have guidance, and to know someone had our backs. Some people are not lucky enough to have that. It’s not an ingrained piece of our society.

Every chapter ends with a line about “How would your life have been if…” you had a circle of women surrounding and backing out. I did appreciate those; I may take the time to at least think about those and maybe even write it down. They are good meditations even if I don’t have a drum circle. This would be a good workbook for a women’s group. And, perhaps most important, I feel these ideas would be equally good for all sexes and genders. We all need someone to have our back. We all need people to explain how life works, and what is happening to us as we grow up, and as we age.