The Wisdom of Women

I sat on a sun-spangled rock today in the ocean breeze with two wise, funny and beautiful women. I am struck these days by the compassion of my friends. Many of them are men as well, but this post is about the female ones.
There is a tendency in our society to lean hard on the stereotypes we espouse about each other when the male-female dynamic gets tough or falls apart. I often hear the generalizations ("women are crazy", "men are dumb") get proferred out as solace, but I never find any resonance or comfort in that, unless it's offered up with the deepest appreciation of it's irony and untruth. Luckily my circle of friends shy away from relying on these lame expressions.
All of us feel deeply, regardless of gender, and if we are living a life of integrity and vulnerability, we will at times feel pain. Humans are imperfect, and as we muddle through this existence, many of us are doing our utmost to get it exactly right. It is imperative that we give ourselves and others when we can, the grace of forgiveness for failing at this impossible task. This imperfection is part of the journey. There are gifts in it. We have the option to come back to the table and risk exposing ourselves as having been wrong, or blind or unwise. It may not change anything on the surface, but it can change everything that lies beneath it.
It would be good for us as women to listen more deeply, and discern what is underneath what the men in our lives have to say. There are gifts there that we could not access otherwise. But today I am incredibly grateful for the wise counsel or simply listening ears of the women in my life. All of you, those close by in geography or connectivity as well as those who are more distant, have granted me more patience and kindness than I could ask for.
When we are grounded in ourselves, and living in integrity with our hearts journey, women are the source of a wisdom that men cannot perceive on their own. This world and it's inhabitants would be wise to listen to the feminine river of insight and grace as it moves without resistance around the obstacles in it's path and wears them slowly away.
This is a joint venture, and we're on the same team.