I love that I have a best friend who helps women write their stories – stories of abuse, stories of ridicule, stories of physical strength, stories that heal – every year and produces them on V-Day.

I love being able to call a friend and say, “Help me find a place to stay in SF!” and she finds me not one but 8 places to stay! And when I ask coyly, “Now how about a date…” she comes up with that, too.

I love having a Roller Derby queen for a friend who went with me to get my tattoo and talked to the woman tattoo artist the entire time while I concentrated on my breathing. And I love that I can call this same woman and ask her for a bikini waxing reference.

I love having a friend in Ohio who I’ve never met who writes me long emails about her and me and our kids and our exes and our spiritual paths and our heart longing. She reminds me of the scene in “Julie and Julia” when Julia and Simone are at the train station in Boston awaiting pick up from Julia’s best friend and Julia admits they’ve never met – just been long, fast pen pals. And that’s all that really matters.

I love knowing B. out in LA who meets with Major Media Moguls but does so with complete humble goodness and a vision for how we can use media to make the lives of women and girls better.

I love having a friend just down the block who is more than willing to come over with a  mirror and speculum to check me out if need be. And that I could call this same Kick Ass Gyrl when another friend was having domestic violence issues.

I love having another friend down my block who can lend me frocks and lace and lipstick and pour through Anthropolgie catalogues with me and tread in the world of all things lovely. And it somehow pleases me all the more that her partner is a she and that gender politics work in such deliriously unexpected, sweet ways.

I love my friend K. and her Q. and her amulet of Love and her Faith.

I love my friend C. and our Power Circle of Divorcing Mamadom — you take my kids today; I’ll take yours tomorrow. You cry on my shoulder today; I’ll cry on yours tomorrow. So looking forward to the burn…

I love knowing that capes WILL be made – thanks to the enthusiasm of S. and M. and others who will be coming into our circle – I feel your movement and the swish swish of yards of red material!

I love that I have therapist friends – so many of them – who are helping women live their dreams every day and dig down deep into themselves for strength.

I love the opportunity to be part of dreams and planning via a group of international women, starting today!

I love that my dear old friend in Brooklyn is nursing her baby this morning and still getting the hang of the baby thing, and that when I told her that if she “just got through the first 8 weeks,” she’d be fine, she moaned in utter exasperation:  EIGHT WEEKS?!

I love that my new friend J. in LA is seeing auras and becoming curious about the world beyond.

I love my friend E. who is traveling with her dear dear partner, husband, and lover S. as he sips in these last beautiful fall days of his life. (I do, however, completely, utterly loathe cancer for taking him.)

I love my daughter, who at eight, is discovering personhood and womanhood in her tiny, yet ever-expanding orbit.

I love my friends who are midwives and doulas, who crouch and instruct and massage and breathe and catch the babies and believe in the  mamas and bring LIFE forth!

I love the yogis in my life who practice with me and open their bodies and spirits again and again to the joyful play that has helped me become a grown up like few other practices in my life. Thank you for Tuesday heart opening with R. and E. and the talk that extends afterward, talks that started back in junior high when we first met.

I love me and my goddess self and her fearless depths, even in the face of financial stipulations and tax returns and lost library books. She who is limitless in love.  She who has been here all along and will see me through.

If you have twenty minutes and need to dive more deeply into the goddess power, watch Eve Ensler’s TED talk. I’ve watched it so many times and am still riveted.