Yvette Warren is a grandmother, the author of the blog One Family, Many Faiths and a newly ordained minister in the Universal Life Church.

My mother died a year ago. Her eighty-fifth birthday would have been the twenty-third of this month. Her death freed me to finally find the sacred in my feminine self. I celebrate the freeing of the bonds of patriarchal religious fears and abuse from both of our souls.

For me the divine feminine is the manifestation of The Power of Creation in my mother self and the “mother selves” of so many women I know, whether they have physically given birth or not.

I am at the stage of matriarchy, with all my grandchildren into their pre-teen and teen years. Having grown up in an abusive home, there was no autopilot on my mothering, so it is a constant source of wonder to me that my children are exceptional parents. I can see in them what I never could accept as part of myself.

A friend who has suffered through my motherhood with me wrote this to me:

“I see you every day as a parent relating to your own children in love, despite your terrible experience as a child.  I see your own face of love and pride, and I wonder how you do not see it yourself.  I do not see you treating your own children as scapegoats, nor constantly reprimanding them—and I wonder how you do not relate God’s love to your own.

I know the deep wounding of childhood, yet I see that somehow you have lept out of that experience, refusing to pass it on to your own children.  I see that as nothing less than a miracle—I see YOU as a “beaming parent, so proud of your progeny.”  I see YOU as the matriarch of cherished children, and grand-children and neices and nephew that you rock and hold and croon to, protect and nourish.  I see YOU as the great warrior against anything that would destroy or harm your loved ones, and YOU  as the one willing to lay down your life and all you possess to defend them.

Does none of this speak to you of the love of God?  You are my role-model of the love of family—- you are my role-model of the love of God.”

What greater gift can one friend give another?  From one mother’s heart to another.

Laura Paskell-Brown is a writer, student and spiritual activist. She runs the women’s circle at Occupy Wall Street

I thought I was only looking for money to fund my PhD, but as I typed “women, spirituality and scholarships” into Google, up popped the website for ‘Women of Spirit and Faith’. That Google search led me to a conference in San Francisco, and to a wave of change that has transformed much of my life.

She was there. She blessed me through sisters who embraced me, mothers who consoled me, and aunties who wiped away my tears and sang me sweet songs. She found me in the midst of my isolation and guided me to the warm folds of her womb, where the mystical alchemy of creation was occurring, where divine connections were forming, where love and a sustaining force I had been so starved of came down the spiritual umbilical chord and poured into my heart, breaking the brittle crust that had formed around it and allowing it to once again beat with Hers, with Yours.

From that womb and from many others, came us. We are Her divine creation. We are the beautiful blessed children in which She is already well pleased.  I might still sometimes think that we are separate – when I forget who I am, who You are – but She blesses me with daily reminders of my true being, my connectedness to Her through all things, my connectedness to You. She also forgives me for forgetting so often.

She blessed me with new eyes. Eyes that cried from sorrow and from joy many times this year. Eyes that began to see truth wherever I went, a truth that I hear spoken whenever one of us expresses love. She placed that sign in Zuccotti Park that said “Don’t be afraid to care”, the one that told me this movement was different. She blessed me with a chance to play my part in Occupy Wall Street, when She called me to form the OWS women’s circle. She blessed me with the courage to step out more fully into my True Self, the courage to say that I see myself as part of the 100 per cent. When I had fear to express my love for all beings – not 99 per cent of them but all of them – She whispered in my ear that it was okay to speak my truth. She reassured me that I would not be the only one. She blessed me with others who also came out as not simply an Occupation of Wall Street but of One World Spirit.

She blessed me with new ears. Ears that have heard a thousand “mike checks!” as others poured out their own truth, their sufferings, their hopes, and their dreams. They are ears that burned every time a lie was told about who We are – that we are bad people, that we are too power hungry and defective to create a world that is dominated by love – and ears that sang with joy when they heard that graceful, powerful transformation is possible. She blessed me with a new passion for listening, with a new recognition that answers came more fully when moments of silence, of pause and of reflection were respected.

She blessed me with new women who I had never met and a new respect for women I had never bothered to get to know properly. She blessed me with a chance to re-member myself. And she blessed me with You. I do not know you but I already love you, and I am blessed that you took time to read my blessings, and blessed that you breath the same air and walk the same earth as I do. With the next year may we advance our understanding of our love for each other, and have the courage to act on it more fully.

If you would like to contribute to this blog you are very welcome. This month we are asking the question: “How has the Divine Feminine blessed you this year?”

Please send your pictures, videos, links, and words (no more than 700 please) to: divine.feminine.wsf@gmail.com by December 16th and we will gladly post them here.