My neighborhood tells the story of contradictions found in most women's lives.

Strolling home today I was hit with the symbolism of businesses and institutions I passed on my way towards Liberty Street.

Keep that street name in the back of your mind because it kind of epitomizes the end point of my journey down my few blocks from downtown, the marketplace and business center of today's economic life of our civilization.

But business isn't the main point of many of us women's lives.  As a matter of fact, business is a side light of our emotional, romantic, nourishing and wisdom-based lives.

Here I am going under the expressway onto Orange Street, and the first business I see is the beauty salon, when we women can have our hair cut, our nails done and made up to become even more beautiful than we really are. A beauty salon is like the tavern to men.  It's the place we become beautiful on the outside while we convince ourselves that we are also beautiful on the inside. It's the center of relaxation, of pampering after a hectic day in the marketplace, and the place where we gain energy to continue our journey down the street.

The next place right next door is the abortion clinic. That's right, the abortion clinic, the place where at least once a week I walk past those in silent protest against the women who are allowed to enter the locked gates and go within the fenced parking lot so they can get family planning help, including an abortion, if necessary.

So our mythological woman gets beautiful. She attracts the attention and amour of the man in her life and wham, she's pregnant. It may not be a good time to bring another child into the world, so we walk on to the abortion clinic.

Next door is Catholic Social Services. That's right, the folks that protested abortions before any of the other religions even stepped foot into the arena. I don't know which place was there first, but I think the abortion clinic was first, with Catholic Social Services, a place of repose and the baring of "guilt" for those who have regret after they get their abortions. There they are told they did a bad thing and not to do it again. And would they like to join the protest next week?

Further down the street, in case Catholic Social Services doesn't do the job is the Women's Recovery Center, a nonprofit gathering site for women who are trying to rid their lives of addiction and all the junk that goes with addiction. We can walk even further down the street and find a sliding scale All Souls Counseling Center.  Those folks will listen, listen and listen some more. They probably won't tell you what to do, but be with you as you decide yourself what you have to do.

If one makes a left hand turn over to Liberty Street, the woman can stop at the Servanthood House, where progressive Christians meet every weekday morning for contemplative prayer and where Zen Buddhists meet in the evenings for their meditative moments.

Along with all of these service groups that tailor, relieve, abort, counsel, and offer time with just "me," we can visit attorneys, a yoga studio, naturopaths, social workers, half-way house for the mentally ill, a natural food store, a coffee shop and a gas station to get the hell out of town.

Or you can be like me. You can head on down to Liberty Street, enter your little sanctuary you call home, and relish the wonders of your own small garden, your own home cooked food and sometimes friendly neighbors.

A bit of advice to you women beginning your own journey to Liberty Street:  Don't think you're so beautiful that bad things can't happen to you.  They can.  But when and if they do, do what your heart tells you to do, even if it means going through locked gates or protesting at those locked gates. 

Get help when you need it, but get the help that truly helps and doesn't make you feel guilty for doing what you knew in your heart was right.  Take time for recovery when time for recovery is needed.  Eat right.  Feed your brain.  Exercise and relax.  Take time to meditate, to mind your health, to be pretty, sexy and happy.  And never forget to take time out to get in touch with the divine within.

Love your home, and make it a place that becomes home more and more each day. Before you know it, you will be living on Liberty Street, too.

And as a woman of this world, you will gain what we older women cherish along with our wrinkles: wisdom to pass on to the women who come after us on their way to Liberty Street.

Rachael Bliss, after working for 10 years in creative services and community affairs at a local broadcasting station, moved into the nonprofit world with her first job with the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, AL. From there she advocated for the hungry, children and the environment as an organizer and director. Articles by Rachael Bliss at MWC News http://mwcnews.net/RachaelBliss

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