After missing, for the first time since 1994, the Michigan Womyn's Music Fetival ("Festival," or "Michigan," to those in the know), my love and I are off to the woodlands of western Michigan to experience four-and-a-half days of fully- or partially-naked women, music, workshops, art, and celebration of diversity and all that makes women beautiful, on 600 acres of pristine land. This is my eighth time. It is my love's first.

She only agreed to come after protesting quite a bit, having mistakenly (but not uncommonly) heard that it is nothing but a bunch of crunchy-hippie-wild-womyn (spelling intentional) doing naked bodypainting in the woods, listening to clich�d lesbian folk music, chanting under the moon, male-bashing, and a host of other prevalent myths about most women's festivals. While it is true that some of those things happen (perhaps with the exception of male-bashing), it is also true that every kind of woman from every imaginable walk of life comprises this mother-of-all-festivals. Approximately five to ten thousand women age 1 to 100, of all races, nationalities (women come from all over the globe), ethnicities, religions, sexualities (with the exception of trannies, which is a huge controversy), lifestyles, body types, and personalities converge for a week (or less) to work together (work shifts are required), play together, debate, relax and express themselves without limitation, without judgment, without fear. Workshops from feminist witchcraft to S/M 101 to elderly addicts to sculpting to lesbian parenting to finance to...(you name it, it's there). I could go on and on, but it is something you have to experience to understand. Whatever you think it is, you are probably only partially right. And it is powerful and inspirational beyond measure.

But most importantly, I have to go shower and dress and hit the road to Festival, where I will recharge my batteries and feel free to be and do whatever I want, however I want, in the company of my love and several thousand other women. WHEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

���`�.��..><((((�>�.���`�.�><((((�>���`�.��..><((((�>���`�.��..><((((�>�.���`�.��..><((((�>�.���`�.�><((((�>���`�.�