To the wise women before us, the beautiful women rising, the young girls watching, those who fear women, the cord cutters and spies, those trained to bring other women down, the ones who need to feel loved the most and all the souls waiting to be born…..
As we navigate life, the call to know and embrace ourselves will arrive in different seasons, inspired by any number of reasons (birth, illness, loss) or a specific stage of development (adolescence, mid-life, aging) and it will often begin with feeling fractured. It may not stop ringing until we pick up, take a deep breath and listen. Guidance and direction can remind us that we are not alone and show us that when we choose to pause and feel, the possibility exists to emerge a little or a lot more whole.
I recently heard that the desire for freedom, peace, happiness, love, safety and belonging are what drive our decision making. I reflected on each one intimately as it sounded reasonable, simple enough and true.
It prompted me to remember the beginning of my social work journey, where all types of creative
endeavors, fascinating research projects, unique internships, and pretty cool ice breakers invited me to continuously think about and often challenge who I was becoming in preparation for the world I was willing to show up for. One particular exercise sticks out and I return to it over and over again to see if my answer has changed……..
We were given a paper with 50 values
and asked to pick the 20 that were the most important.
Reduce the list to 10,5, until we were left with our final 3. It was incredibly contemplative and difficult. And for a
few moments we believed we were allowed to keep them until we were asked to pick just…. 1.
Freedom
was where I landed and freedom is where I stay.
Freedom to think the way I do,
Freedom to love, love, love, love and love some more.
Freedom to explore the world, create new ones, come home and go back out again.
Freedom to make decisions based on who I am and
who I am not.
Freedom to change my mind
as I am given more information and new experiences and freedom to go backwards and discover something brand new from something old.
Freedom to dance around, burn through,
breath out and let go of what is not truth.
Freedom to be who I
was born to be.
Knowing that expectations crafted to limit me do not define me
and remembering,
Freedom is not experienced by everyone.
This middle part, inspired by life transitions and motivated by an intuitive desire to
comfort a world crying so loudly, so mad and on fire, confused and afraid for the first time in so long, I sought clarity.
I danced, breathed, talked, listened, talked, walked, sensed, worked, wrote, cried, shouted, played, rested, laughed, prayed,
oh how I prayed..
and it was in the quiet that I could hear her once again.
Guided every step of the way, I remembered…
She is beautiful,
She is fierce.
She is kind.
She is tough.
She is relentless.
She knows.
She sees.
She hears.
She is cautious and reckless, equally loyal and desperate,
somber and anxious, righteous and humble.
She is funny and likes to have fun.
Seemingly never enough, ridiculously too much,
She is jubilantly radiant,
with a laugh that will fill a room and a wail that will pierce your soul.
She is passionate
She is soft.
She is good.
She is everything and more in all of her
imperfect perfection….
A daughter, a sister, a friend, a mother, a grandma
a worthy provider, a teacher, a healer, a creator, a nurturer,
a warrior,
a goddess, an angel, a magical witch, and
She knows the Transformative Power of Love
She is You. She is Me. She is Free to awaken….naturally. With every encounter life offers, she feels her way to herself. She knows who she is and moves with Love, always.
When Love Calls 