Abstract

This essay describes the path some women have taken when they responded to the call of their Self's voice. Part One, titled "Storytelling and Truthtelling: 'I remember and I recall,' thinspace" advances several different definitions of truth and story. It also examines the healing power derived from telling truths through stories. Part One advances the notion that readers and listeners cannot take at face value what narrators tell them. They need to be aware of whether a narrator is reliable or unreliable, for myths and legends built on unreliability can destroy species and places. Examples of lies and their effects in our lives reveal this truth. Those examples entwine with stories informed by truths and their effects. ;Part Two, "Tell Me a Story That's True," is a close-text reading of four fictional narratives: Cactus Thorn by Mary Austin, The Dollmaker by Harriette Arnow, The Fires of Bride by Ellen Galford, and Send My Roots Rain by Ibis Gomez-Vega. These women writers write of women characters whose lives are formed by truths uncovered when they heeded Earth's call to connectedness and healing. I employ a feminist reader-response approach as expressed by Elizabeth A. Flynn in her essay "Gender and Reading." ;Part Three, titled "Naming Spaces as Sacred," defines "sacred" and "spaces," and discusses the importance of naming spaces as sacred. I use the women's experiences from Parts One and Two as where to find sacred spaces and why they are needed in our lives