Part 1, pgs. 1-28 Summary and Analysis

"Awakening" opens with author Sue Monk Kidd rebuking two men standing over her 14-year-old daughter Ann stocking toothpaste. They laugh about women belonging on their knees. Sue's struggle with how women are treated in the culture has been stalled, fearing self-discovery, but uttering her "declaration of intent" makes her feel like a newborn. Sue is a full-time writer, married for 18 years, raising two adolescent children, attending church regularly, and uncomfortable with the word "feminism." One night two years ago she dreams about giving birth to herself, alone on an island, and gradually sees that she must rethink her life as a "man-made" woman and reclaim her soul. Eight years later, she is ready to share the experience of rediscovering the "Divine Feminine presence." All assumptions must be cast away, which takes time. Sue begins a new journal...