On the last weekend of October, the first weekend of November, I gathered with a pile of other women and children at Mystery Bay, NSW. It was our 23rd year running of Women’s Camp. We currently love to gather twice a year with women and children, aunties and grannies to camp, eat, chat, be in circle and just generally have a delicious time by the sea. 

I thought I’d share some of my thoughts about my time including: 

• Thinking back to 23 years ago and comparing that with how I show up now
• The circles I was part of and other stuff I saw happening
• What I loved most
• Dates for the next one

23 years ago vs now

Whoa. I actually can’t believe it but I went to Women’s Camp when my daughter was 6 weeks old! 

I used to find Women’s Camp really challenging and is it any wonder! 

We all had small kids and a lot of us were single parenting and even though it was challenging at times, it was really great for the kids to be together, to be able to share the load of meals and to have time to lay in the sun and chat. 

But I do think whoa again if I go back in time.

I used to get super triggered by the groups of women; it brought back old hurts from high school as well as the physical demands of being at camp. 

Upon reflection, I was quite under-resourced. I was single, I was not financially supported and I was living in my trauma responses a lot.

Flip that to 2025. 

Working back and up – I am feeling so resourced now! Financially, emotionally, physically and spiritually. 

I have a kind, dedicated partner who handles the bundle that I am. Financially we have what we need and emotionally/spiritually I feel better than ever. Menopause has certainly cooked me up a lot lately and most recently I feel I’m in a pretty good place right now. Plus, I have been working through the Earth Woman program which I thought was just going to be quite surface and was I ever wrong about that. 

Instead – my interaction with the Earth Woman program has brought me insight, clarity, red-thread healing, sister wound healing and more – and Women’s Camp is the place I tend to notice this evolution most. 

Because what used to feel so hard now feels full of grace to the point where I can now hold space for others and it feels effortless. One participant said they wished that my friend and I had more support and that others did more to help us but I disagreed. I actually don’t feel like I did much at all and that’s the best way to hold space in my experience. Where my service feels like nothing and it still gives others so much. 

I’m so grateful for my current place in life. That I have enough and I can serve others in a way that is actually my fantasy; women and children living and loving together – even if it’s only for 3 days. 

What happened

At the last few Women’s Camps I’ve held space for a Menopause Circle but this time I just did not feel the call to hold that space. In fact, my menopause journey feels quite tender right now while I come to terms with how good it is even though it’s not easy. There’s something about that apparent paradox that I’m grappling with and too much exposure to the sad bad story about menopause is not what I want to be exposed to right now. 

Instead, I held a circle about Pregnancy Loss. My first born, Josh, was a stillborn baby (you can learn more about that here) and his life has informed everything that came in my life since him. If you’ve been through something similar you might know what I mean. For me, the grief has had a long time to work on me (25 years) so I feel settled in the process and gifts and feel especially passionate about having conversations about miscarriage, stillbirth, neo-natal death and IVF. Again, Women’s Camp was making my dreams come true. 

There was a menopause circle, and we also had morning check-in circles which turned out to be super epic. There was a Grandmother circle, a zine making circle, the Saturday sharing our gifts (like open mic without the mic) and the very late Saturday night raucous laughter of the Dirty Goddess hour. As well as loads of swims because we were up the Billy’s Beach end of Mystery Bay campground so getting to the beach was easier than ever.

What I loved most

Really, I just love hearing other women’s stories. I love the texture of the female experience. That even though we are all so unique and our journey is tailor made for our own healing and somehow at the same time, there are universally common feelings and experiences. I love it that somehow just sharing what is alive in  me and hearing what is alive in  you heals me and supports you! It’s incredible. 

I also loved our camp kitchen, our tarps, the trees, the kids, the 3 year old clothing choices (very inspiring) and just being together as women.

Dates for next camp

Currently our thinking is that camp will be March 27-29. Will I see you there?