I was challenged to write a letter of appreciation to women in history in honor of International Women’s Day. Given that I have mixed feelings about the women’s movement, this wasn’t a commentary that flowed like water.
In a women’s circle several years ago an acquaintance from Eastern Europe told me that she didn’t understand the obsession American women have with being thought of as equal to men. “Why would you want that? In my culture women are considered far superior and unique in many ways.”
I dream of the day when we have such profound and obvious respect for all humanity and creation that an International Women’s Day would seem wholly unnecessary and rote. Our rising will continue to depend on our ability to value ourselves, the sanctity of our dreams, desires, bodies, and contributions, and to transmit reverence for what is sacred to our sons and daughters; gracefully stand our ground with our brothers, friends and significant others; and to know, speak and live our deepest and most tender truths to the best of our ability.
I sat thoughtfully this week to consider who are the women in history that have made strides that are most meaningful to me. The ones that show up in the history books fought for equality and women’s right to vote, rose in the workplace, and refused to stand down under pressure and oppression of modern society. The one’s whose names we know (if even by a single quote or mention or list), are distinguished and indeed deserve our deepest gratitude. I wonder if they turn in their graves at the current reality that our votes are effectively cast for a panel of entities that run the world on principles of mass exploitation, control, manipulation, and consumerism, rather than the ideals they threw their lives down for? We have much work to do to properly honor their intentions and sacrifices.
Though there are many women to name - too many - and too many that can’t be named because they are working in the realm where cameras don’t go and the media and history books are not interested, I’ll speak in a way that honors as many as possible, past and present, for their hearts and the principles they stand for.
Midwives and Doulas – First and foremost, these wisdom-keepers who meet us with loving and skillful hands on the way into this human experience – and guide women through the most vulnerable, tender and powerful events of our life - must be collectively honored. Their spacious, skillful and intuitive ways would do well to be adopted to meet other healing needs characterizing our current state of affairs. They are experts at holding space, allowing nature to take its course, offering holistic support, knowing when to engage and when to allow, and empowering women to safely and divinely experience the rite of passage to motherhood. That they continue to hold, understand and honor the great significance of this sacred portal for women and humanity is critical in these times. There are just not words to adequately and accurately express the importance of this, given that healthy mothers are the cornerstone of healthy societies.
Artists who channel truth about the human experience in the unique ways that they do serve great contemporary and historical purpose. Especially those who dare to share their creativity with the world when their art, dance, or song is judged, heckled, or passed over.
Women who held (hold) the hearth, anchored families, and knew in their bones that the hearth was the heart of the home and therefore the community, are deserving of deep appreciation. That fast food joints, gourmet restaurants, food banks, microwaves and grocery stores are largely holding this is a disservice to what they knew to be true. Their (often barefoot and pregnant) place around the hearth was not slave labor; it is where health and wholesome relationships are cultivated. Appreciating these women and their extraordinary “knowing” means gathering around the hearth once again.
Women, and men, who held/hold sacred ceremonies, rites of passage, and act as stewards of our land and waters are perhaps the greatest healers of our time. I pray that they will pass these torches and traditions to those of us who will continue to honor people, planet, and peace. My grateful heart goes out to all indigenous peoples who hold ceremony and continue to steward the Earth in spite of the toxic ignorance and abuse of our Western ways.
Devotional Dancers who celebrate and remind us of the sacred and harmonious union between masculine and feminine within ourselves and in relationship. I thank them for holding with great reverence the need and desire for beauty and sacred connection in the world. Those who dare to hold dance and art as important to our humanity understand the subtleties that will lead us on a path toward successful evolution.
Relationship architects and shadow dwellers doing the deep work to come to terms with personal traumas, revive and restore shameless relationship with our bodies and sexuality, and cultivate the ability to be in mature, productive and sacred intimate relationships are indeed walking through a purifying fire for the greater good of humanity.
Women (and men) who are imprisoned, displaced, starting over (again), on the run, struggling to reclaim their health or put food on the table, raising children or otherwise care-taking in the tragic absence of the “village” that is characterizing our current reality - they fight with their blood, sweat, tears and experiences of deep loneliness for our collective health, resilience, and the restoration of our communities.
Countless women (and men) are stepping into unchartered, nuanced, complicated, scary and horrific waters of humanitarian roles – because a sense of solidarity and nursing humanity back to collective health is a critical and necessarily grassroots endeavor. All hands and hearts are needed on deck for this task right now.
Healers and Herbalists. At least a hundred contemporary female healers are named in my heart right now, and as many men, who I have experienced to be incredibly intuitive, gentle, non-invasive, respectful, effective, persistent, and ingenious in their healing capacities.
I honor the women who understand that men (even white men) are our friends, brothers, and sons; and they’re not going way. I would be remiss not to recognize where men in my life (even white men) have lifted me, protected me, held space for me, and graciously supported me in becoming the woman I am today. It is on us to do our part to forge healthy relationships and to effectively recruit their support, expertise, and passions in co-creating a more just and vital world. I continue to choose and cultivate relationships where we are better for being together. Relationships that diminish us are also a choice, and in my view a waste of precious time.
My mother and grandmother – Having had the experience of being refugees during World War II, and working as indentured servants at a southern plantation to “earn” their right to become American citizens, they then did everything in their power to forge a new, responsible, safe and abundant life for their family in the United States. My rich and bountiful life had its foundations laid by their courageous and traumatic journey. There will be countless similar and very tumultuous versions of this story in the generations to come.
On this International Women’s Day I am reminded that we don’t rise or fall alone, or separate from our relationships with the men, other cultures, other species and the natural phenomena around us. Those who stand for and live by principles of individual freedom, collective harmony, reciprocity and responsible stewardship of our bodies, souls and resources will inevitably continue to rise.
