Stepping Forward One late summer night a heavy thunderstorm showered the trees in the woods. The next morning I saw that pieces of bark had been stripped off from a large trunk and fallen to the ground. The tree trunk became naked. Each piece of bark, like fallen leaves on the ground, that once had life, but are abandoned from the tree. The tree will have new growth and new bark, as is nature's way. This sight of fallen barks and tree recalled a memory; I have seen three generations of woman in our family, each rooted deep and wide to the ground in order to hold their families together. Their struggles to strip off the unwritten rules of woman - that have bonded us, passing on from one generation to the next generation - that way to have more room for new growth as individuals and to step forward. 2011 RETURN