I grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and I moved at age twelve to the country, where we lived on about seven acres. A stream ran by the house, and I heard the water every night while I slept. I played in the creek a lot. My family, and especially my father, had a great appreciation for nature. When we went away together we hiked and spent time just being in nature. Mother Nature was a lifeline-a hope and a source for me.  

My father, Walter Reuther, was a very well-known labor leader in Michigan and nationally. He was a visionary and a brave warrior, head of the United Automobile Workers. Today I deeply appreciate and admire him and he inspires me in my vision here at Hearts and Hands at Cider Creek. My mother was a woman of her time, the woman behind the man, and I did not have a strong connection with her while she was alive. Today I understand and accept her passionate devotion to my father in his vision, and I have made peace with the personal sacrifices she made to do so. She was a brave woman in the context of her life and her personal struggles.  

I moved to California in 1965 to teach Headstart and find my own path. My parents died together in a plane crash in 1970, and this profoundly changed my life. There remains a question as to whether it was an accident or an act of sabotage, and this is still under investigation. My father still had a lot of enemies at that time, although he wasn't as radical then as in the early days of the union. He was a colleague of Martin Luther King and the Kennedys, and I think he posed a threat to the establishment. Two years ago, my sister, her family and I were invited to the White House to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was posthumously awarded to my father. This was an amazing experience and great honor.  

As a child I was silent about what was going on inside of me. I played by the rules. About twelve years ago, I started having flashbacks of childhood sexual abuse by my uncle. I started to realize things about my relationship with myself and with others. I had so much fear and bottled-up energy in me. From that point, things shifted in the kind of personal healing work I was doing. I realized that sexual abuse demonstrates how the feminine has been used and devalued. The rape of the Earth and of women is the same-people wanting "power over" others in order to feel their own value through control and manipulation. But using other people to get this doesn't work. This is why we are in such a crisis.  

 
My relationship to the Earth and the regenerative powers of Mother Nature sustained me through difficult times. My healing process took the form of needing to express my feelings about my wounding. I roared a lot and expressed deep anger and strong feelings that women are not "supposed" to have. Women are given the message to be seen and not heard. That is certainly the message I got early in my life. When I started learning about the Goddess, I began receiving support from the archetypal forms that people have honored and valued for thousands of years such as the Minoan snake goddess and Kali. The snake goddess became my ally and a powerful reminder that I am fine, that my power is creative and positive, and that anger does not need to be destructive. My anger is the source of creativity and expression and it must come through. The snake goddess sustained me as she stands strong in her power and beauty holding a snake in each hand above her head. She teaches us to embrace and come forward with our own power and fullness. The snakes symbolize empowerment and transformation. Kali also inspired me during this intense time of releasing and helped me with this transformation of energy.  

I love the strong warrior goddesses, but after doing this cathartic healing for many years, I have softened. I am now also attracted to the archetypal goddesses who are gentler and more graceful in their beauty. Coming through the gate of my workshop space at Hearts and Hands, people see an outdoor statue of Isis with her wings spread out. Kuan Yin, the goddess of compassion, is in the house, the garden and in the workshop space. I have a beautiful photograph called "Kuan Yin With Heart"-with a giant heart sculpted on her chest. She represents the other side of power and strength-compassion for oneself and others.  

Earth goddesses appeal to me. When I first saw the Venus of Willendorf (a prehistoric female figure with large rounded breasts and belly) many years ago, I was frightened by her fullness. In our society, we get the message that that kind of abundance is absolutely unacceptable. It took me awhile to embrace her. As the archetypal Great Mother, this incredibly abundant and revered woman often makes people uncomfortable. She is so large, sensual, voluptuous and ripe with the fertility of feminine energy and power. Our discomfort with her is a reflection of how we are raised as women-what size we are taught is acceptable and what is not acceptable. I love her now and see her as delicious and nurturing.  

 
The focus of my life has been supporting women in finding their voices. Since the 1970s I have been involved in the world of 19th-century women and their quilts. This included co-curating shows at the Oakland Museum and the San Francisco Art Institute, working on the Amish quilt show at the deYoung Museum, and creating and operating a quilt gallery for ten years with my partner Julie Silber. Through my research I found that women, who were otherwise so silenced in their lives, found ways to express themselves in the textiles they made. Quilting bees were really women's circles, where women talked about their lives in ways we still do now. In making the functional objects they needed in their lives, they were also getting together and connecting as sisters and friends. Although quilts were mainly made for utilitarian reasons, they are also artistic creations and incredible personal documents in cloth-of the truths, lives and experiences of women. They represent so much of spirit.  

Women's work was not valued, but was considered only as part of everyday life. Family records rarely mentioned quilts among what was of value in the family. Telling the stories of the women through their quilts is a way to connect to a rich legacy that was silenced. Here at Hearts and Hands at Cider Creek, we honor these forms and expressions by having handmade antique quilts on the beds, on the walls and throughout the 1860s farmhouse.  

When I opened my gallery, "Mary Strickler's Quilt," in San Rafael in 1972, I think there had been only one quilt show in a major museum, and very few books on quilts had been written. During the ten years I had the gallery, hundreds of quilt books were written and many museum shows were installed. Celebrations of women flourished. I see this as parallel to the increased interest in the world of the Goddess and the sacred feminine. The number of people celebrating the Goddess, doing research, writing books, and giving tours to sacred goddess sites has greatly expanded.  

 
I have a little antique shop in Marin County with quilts and other women's things. About six years ago, I got a really strong message that I needed to set aside a section of the store for the Goddess and the sacred feminine. So, in the middle of this very mainstream and conventional antique store, I opened an area with statues, photographs, cards, drums and books on the Goddess and the sacred feminine. I carry reproductions of traditional goddess sculptures and originals made by contemporary women artists who create their personal interpretations of archetypes. People who celebrate the pagan way of life come in, but also many conventional women come and stand to look at statues of Great Goddesses. They see and feel themselves there-images reflecting back to themselves that they are okay-in a way that they might not have known before.  

 
In the past five years I have done a lot of shamanic work-vision quests, journeys, soul retrievals, work with ancestors, guides, and allies. I wrote "Homecoming"-a piece about the great mother-on a vision quest with Angeles Arrien the year before I found Hearts and Hands at Cider Creek. At that time I felt a call from the Goddess. I had wanted to create a healing center for about fifteen years, but didn't know quite where to go. I know the Goddess drew me to this land so I could nourish the sacred feminine in others.  

The first weekend I spent on the land, I learned that my neighbors were about to cut all the trees on their property adjacent to my apple orchard. I was faced with a complicated family situation; however after many negotiations, much patience and many prayers, I was able to purchase the timber rights to the trees, and protect the forest and the integrity of the land. The warrior energy that sustained me during this process was a direct inspiration from the Great Mother. Saving the trees felt like my initiation into the next part of my journey, the creation of my healing and retreat center in Albion.  

My daily life is a celebration of the feminine-whether I am working on the land or getting the house ready for guests. What I care about is making people feel that Hearts and Hands is a safe, welcoming, and nurturing space. I learned this in my family. My father's mother, Anna Reuther, was a special inspiration for me, and I was named after her (my middle name). When I found this property, I got out of my car and walked up to the gate. She suddenly appeared behind me and said, "Linda, this is where your dreams will come true." I hadn't even walked into the house yet. When I walked in, I felt, "I have come home. I have come home to do what I was meant to do."  

A photograph of my grandmother sits on the mantel and welcomes people as they enter the house. The wife of the man who built the homestead is also very present in the house. She died here, and her spirit is still present. People have said that she visits and brushes by them, and seems very happy. There is much soul and spirit here, which is due to the ancestral, nurturing, holding energy in the old farmhouse and also the nature of this particular piece of land.  

I have owned this property for four years. The house has many rooms filled with all kinds of handmade treasures and details. It is furnished with many nineteenth century pieces that I have collected over the past thirty years. People have the experience of stepping back/out of time when they enter the house into a safe, sacred and nurturing world. In contrast, the workshop space-a thousand-square-foot room-is a big, open canvas that is very sparse. The soundproof room was completed over a year ago. People can use it for joyful celebrations, movement, yoga, art, or revel in deep meditative silence. It has an altar, candles and sound system, drums, rattles, and wonderful chairs for sitting in circle.  

When people come here, they tend to do very deep work and are helped to find their voices and to regain pieces of their lives that they have lost. They feel safe. They live together, cook together, and participate in daily life together. Being here creates healing and bonding but also brings up family issues and patterns. So this is a space for breakthrough and coming to new places. Then this personal healing and affirmation can then be taken back into the world to heal the Earth and help restore balance again.  

It is important for me to create this safe container for people to connect to the Goddess and express their many voices. Certainly that is what I needed when I did my healing.  

 
Embracing the Goddess and the sacred feminine is about wholeness. We have to keep things in perspective. Technology can't be an end in itself, but can be used as a creative tool and as a means to an end. When it becomes an end, we lose track of what has heart, meaning and soul. When we disconnect from spirit, we get off the path. We are all people with hearts, experiences, and the need to connect and be authentic. There is a reason we are all here-not to make the best technology but to find balance. Greed is a hunger. It keeps growing and takes its toll. In the big picture, we are creating scarcity on many levels in trying to feed the greed. We could find solutions to meet our needs without pushing for such incredible profits. We need to stop and ask, "What is my own personal hunger, and how will I get my needs met, put the pieces of my quilt together, and become whole? How can people join together and make a difference in healing the world?"  

To get people who are narrow in their thinking to be curious is a challenge. Common ground and alliances can be formed between people of opposing views if they can be open to hear the other side. I have faith and trust that energetically there is something building that is very palpable as we approach the millennium. The force at work is not going to stop. It is getting us all to pay attention.  

For the past ten years I have lived my life by having faith, planting seeds, and tending the garden. The garden grows the way it supposed to grow. If your intention is clear, be willing to go with the surprises and unexpected things that happen. Certainly Hearts and Hands at Cider Creek is an affirmation of my purpose and deep trust in spirit.