Our mothers are the first world we know, the source of our lives and our stories. Embodying the mysteries of origin, they tie us to the great web of kin and generation. Yet the voice of their experience is seldom heard. We have no cultural mirror in which to envision the fullness of female development; we are deprived of images of female wisdom and maturity. Finding our female roots, reclaiming our feminine souls, requires us to pay attention to our real mothers' lives and experience. Listening to our mothers' stories is the beginning of understanding our own.

Naomi Ruth Lowinsky is the author of 'The Sister from Below: When the Muse Gets Her Way' and 'The Motherline: Every Woman's Journey to Find Her Female Roots' and numerous prose essays, many of which have been published in 'Psychological Perspectives' and 'The Jung Journal'. She has had poetry published in many literary magazines and anthologies, among them 'After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery', 'Weber Studies', 'Rattle, Atlanta Review', 'Tiferet' and 'Asheville Poetry Review'. Her two poetry collections, 'red clay is talking' (2000) and 'crimes of the dreamer' (2005) were published by Scarlet Tanager Books. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize three times. Naomi is a Jungian analyst in private practice, poetry and fiction editor of 'Psychological Perspectives', and a grandmother many times over.