From Sarah, with love,

The idea of peace in the Middle-east is never far from my heart.
I was inspired to write this letter after hearing about a group of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish mothers who have formed a close-knit spiritual study group in Chicago. It intrigues me to wonder how different history might have been, had the wives and mothers had more say in the direction of their lives, and the lives of their children...


My Dear Hagar,
I hate it here since you’ve been gone. I ache from missing you. I worry every second, and I pray to the Goddess that you are safe. And Ishmael! Oh, my heart hurts to think of how confusing this must be for him. Isaac and I both miss him so much! Please give him our love.
Oh, hell, I’ve even been praying to Jehovah, in case Abraham’s god turns out to be the only true god, like all the men think. *sigh* Now I have no one with whom to whisper such heresies and laugh.
Do you know that, for the record, Abraham is claiming that he was 100 and I was 90 when you and I became pregnant? No, I am not kidding! This desert wind and sun has not been kind to anyone’s skin, but...90?? Please. I can’t possibly look a day over 70, right? Ah, well. It’s a good thing Isaac did come along when he did. I’m beginning to feel the changes of Crone-hood in my body. Maybe that makes me 45? 50? Hard to tell. All the seasons blend so seamlessly here and one month is just like the last.
We do all miss having your youthful beauty around the place (Abraham can’t bring himself to say it, but I see the sadness in his eyes).
Poor Abraham. Maybe he really does feel more than a century old. I’d hate to think he’s lying on purpose. Jehovah would definitely not approve.
If I had a place to go, Hagar, I would leave. He tries to be a good man, but do you know that, in the name of his God, he mutilated my son’s manhood, and he quite nearly sacrificed him on an altar of prayer!?
I do think he’s gone a little crazy with fear of this ’god’. I never sleep more than a few feet from my son anymore, and never without a dagger under my pillow. It’s no way to live. But, I know in my heart that he’s not a bad man, just fearful.
It’s just that my fears are of him, and that makes sense. Fear of some omni-present, omni-powerful, beastly god who demands death and dismemberment of our children? That, I cannot fathom.
Anyway, my dear, the day he sent you away was the worst day of my life, but likely the best possible thing for you.
He tells people it was because of my jealousy, instead of his own. He says I envied his relationship with you, because he cannot bear to tell the truth that you and I loved each other at the expense of his ego. His pride will not allow that. He cannot ever say aloud that the deep love between women is a thing more powerful than anything he’s experienced, except for his fear of god, and that he had no idea how to behave in the presence of such joy and freedom. It terrified him!
I do feel sorry for him. Don’t hate him, Hagar. He is the best leader he knows how to be.
I pray that you have found a community that loves you for your unique gifts. I pray the same for Ishmael.
May the future find us together again, somehow, watching our boys continue to grow in love and brotherhood to be the kind of men we both wish their father had the freedom to be.
Who knows...maybe the prophecy that Abraham will be the ’Father of Nations’ has come true in our boys! Here’s a prayer to The Divine Mother that they come back together in the peace and love for which their earthly mothers ache. I want us to be sharing grandkid- and great-grandkid duties when we are truly 90 or 100!
I love you forever!

Sarah