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Joan Anderson joined Marjorie’s on May 4th to culminate their 10th year anniversary. She spent the day at the Sudbury location signing autographs, selling books and offering advice and words of wisdom. It was a wonderful way to end our year long celebration.

The following article ran in the Sudbury Town Crier a week prior to the event.
Words of wisdom can change lives. By Carole LaMond/ Staff WriterThursday, April 27, 2006

Joan Anderson is like a mother, best friend and mentor rolled into one.

She is also a best-selling author and motivational speaker whose latest book, “A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People” was published in April.

But Anderson didn’t always have it all together. Ten years ago, Anderson, then 53, and “soul lonely,” did what many women who are suffocating under the multiple demands of family, career and societal pressures only dream of doing.

She ran away from home.

The experience of self-discovery while she lived for a year in a cottage on Cape Cod resulted in a memoir, “A Year By the Sea: Thoughts of an Unfinished Woman,” as well as a revitalized marriage, a new outlook on life and a passion to share what she learned and urge other women to take time for self-reflection.

“I don’t think a woman can stay home and hear what her heart needs to tell her,” said Anderson in a phone interview from her house on the Cape. “If a woman goes away, even for a day, she can truly hear what she needs to hear.”

On Thursday, May 4, from 1 to 4 p.m. Marjorie’s gift store in Mill Village is hosting “Tea and Conversation with Joan Anderson.” The afternoon event is open to the public as an opportunity to meet Anderson, ask questions or have her autograph books. The chance to drop in and visit with Anderson is the culminating event in the store’s year-long birthday celebration which has included a gala party, a guest appearance by a master engraver of Simon Pearce glassware, monthly sales and a donation to breast cancer programs at Emerson Hospital in Concord.

Marjorie “Midge” Dey opened the store that bears her name on June 4, 1995. Two years later Dey’s daughter, Jennifer Bilancieri, joined her at the Mill Village gift shop as a sales associate. In 1999 Dey moved to the Cape where she has a second store in Brewster and Bilancieri became the manager of Marjorie’s in Sudbury.

Dey and Anderson are neighbors on the Cape, and have become close friends.

“Everyone needs a muse like Joan, someone who believes in you and says ‘What do you need and how can I help you get there?’” said Dey. “I know the power of what she can do for other people and it’s always right on.”

Many of her friends and customers have read Anderson’s three earlier books on the process of self-discovery, said Dey, who wanted to offer them a chance to meet her friend and mentor in person.
“You won’t be the same for having met her,” said Dey. “I see her in action and have seen people have their lives changed because of her. You can be in the middle of a room full of people and you think you’re the only one she’s talking to.”

Central to Anderson’s message is the concept of being an “unfinished woman,” a person who is in transition, constantly changing and growing as she moves through different life stages.

Anderson gives out “Unfinished Woman” bumper stickers at her workshops.

“I’m even dreaming of an Unfinished Woman national holiday,” Anderson said with a laugh.

But Anderson sees women who are so worn out by the demands of everyday life that they find it impossible to keep a core part intact, the part that allows them to create happiness.

“We’re much more worn out than the men because we have so many roles to play,” said Anderson ticking off all the tasks from bringing home a paycheck to bringing the cupcakes to school that women take on. “We can’t help ourselves because we care about everyone else. We have no idea what we want because we always do whatever everybody else needs.”

Anderson described the “ache” she felt and the longing to retrieve some of the qualities that gave her joy and definition before marriage, motherhood and a busy career as a journalist and children’s novelist dulled her sense of self.

“I longed for some of those qualities back again,” said Anderson. “No one took those qualities away. I just let them wither on the vine.”

Anderson runs workshops and retreats to help women begin to ask, “Who am I beyond the roles I play?”

A key step is to find time to be alone.

“There are 8,700 hours in a year, and if you can’t find 24 for yourself, that’s pitiful,” said Anderson. “In Greek the word for alone is ‘all one’ and in order to be all one we need to be alone. Why can’t women get time off? We can’t survive with just Mother’s Day.”

“A Weekend to Change Your Life” is based on the Anderson’s weekend retreats and the process of “retreat, retrieve, repair, regenerate, renew.” It is not a manual or a self-help book, but a tool to encourage contemplation and taking the time to make transitions.

“I don’t believe in how-to books. No woman needs to be told what to do. You can open the book anywhere and get something out of it,” said Anderson. “So many people said, �You’ve encouraged me to change, how can I take the first step?� This is a great little handbook for shifting and changing.”

“I ran away ten years ago, so this has been a long transition,” added Anderson with a laugh.

Marjorie’s is located in a separate building next to the main complex of shops in Mill Village at 365 Boston Post Road, Sudbury, 978-440-8418