This traveling women's circle in the Poltava region operates on the principles of absolute privacy and personal recommendations, gathering participants twice a month without any public announcements. The women journey through the lesser-known and abandoned corners of the Hadyach region, visiting old hamlets, rural courtyards, and natural sites to engage in long walks and botanical observation. During these meetings, they slow down, read poetry, sing traditional songs, and practice low-stakes artistic activities free from the pressure of productivity or evaluation. Each journey concludes with a ritual of therapeutic writing, where lived emotions and landscape observations are transformed into personal essays and journal entries.
There are spaces that many of us are missing today: places where there is no need to meet other people’s expectations, to be “successful” or “good enough.” Places where it is possible to simply be yourself, to be an amateur.
Between Herbs and Words is a travelling circle for women, a space for quiet presence, grounding, and restoration.
Twice a month, I gather a small group of 10–15 local women for intimate meetings that take place without public announcements. Participants join through personal invitations and recommendations from friends, creating an atmosphere of trust and openness.
Each gathering takes us to a different corner of the Hadyach region: from hidden gardens and village courtyards to abandoned hamlets and places that hold a special significance in the local landscape. Through walking, observing plants, listening to stories, and reconnecting with the land, we gradually create our own shared mental map of the region, bringing attention back to places that have largely disappeared from public memory.
During these journeys, we slow down and listen to our bodies. We spend time without the pressure of productivity or evaluation. We engage with language in different forms, from poetry and reflective writing to traditional songs. We also explore simple artistic practices that allow us to become amateurs of our own lives again — creating not for achievement, but out of curiosity, affection, and genuine attention.
Each journey concludes with a shared ritual of writing. Through essays, notes, and personal reflections, participants transform lived experiences, emotions, and observations into words. For some, this becomes a way of exploring themselves and their relationship with the region they inhabit; for others, it develops into an ongoing creative practice.
Over time, these gatherings are intended to nurture something beyond the individual journeys themselves: a stable and self-sustaining community of women who can offer one another support, companionship, and a sense of belonging long after the walks and conversations have ended.
