No Apologies — A New Feminism.
{Photo via septimuslotus.wordpress.com}
By Ann Malabre.
When I think about what I learned about being a girl, and woman to be, growing up, I am startled by how far away it is from the truth I now experience at 50.
Why?
Why didn’t my mother tell me of my power and my truth? Why was she so afraid of it?
She did not prevent me from being consumed by a society that feels threatened by the feminine strengths, instead she almost threw me into the pain I suffered in order to understand it herself. She thought she was doing the right thing.
If I was going to be a female, I was going to have to be strong, embrace my suffering quietly, and learn to play the game.
What did I get from the world around me? I got stories of girls being chosen for their beauty and rescued so that they could serve at the side of their rescuer and be cherished for their kindness** and appealing looks. I really, really, wanted to be cherished.
When I looked around me at what I wanted to become, all the images involved a powerful male body full of authority and commanding respect — none had the soft curves and caring eyes of a woman.
I was angry. I didn’t know how to play the game. When I tried to be beautiful and nice, I was not cherished, I was taken advantage of, and it became safer to see myself as unredeemingly ugly. When I tried to harden myself and embody my masculine power, I was overpowered and subdued.
I felt undersupplied, outgunned and with the wrong map of the territory.
My great discovery, born from this despair of not being able to be seen or heard for the truth I sensed within, was my cloak of invisibility — my superpower.
From within this cloak, I got along; I no longer cared how I appeared, because I was invisible. No one could hurt me, because they couldn’t see me. I was numb, but I had power.
In time, I became a mother, created my own secret hideout where my truth could express itself, and from here, outside the world of competition and men, I found allies in other women.
I look at the destruction of the earth’s resources and beauty, and the disregard of her love and generous offerings. Yes, I call the earth a her and give her the power of love, because I am a woman with the power of the lyrical and a connection to my intuition, and I am not going to throw that away to strip myself of my strengths and knowing to be masculine and factual, just to fit in.
I realize the earth’s story is my own story and the story of how we are holding the gifts of the feminine. I wake up sharply to the knowing that this is not just about me, it is about women, and nature, and we can no longer move slowly only whispering to our sleeping powers.
What were we thinking, that we needed the kiss of a Prince to wake up from our long slumber?
We are visionaries and the dreamers of tomorrow. We know the truth without either being told or needing facts.
We can create life from our bodies and know what to do with it to grow it and nurture it — we need only the self-connection to follow our instincts. We don’t need books or expert knowledge; we just need each other and our collective feminine wisdom.
Knowledge is cerebral understanding, wisdom is that understanding held in the greatest possible context. Women are the embodiment of wisdom, yet we have subjugated our wisdom to knowledge.
Human beings still walk this planet, because women have followed their intuition and instincts and raised their babies. Knowledge is eroding this wisdom, and our babies are suffering.
We see the forest and are informed we should be looking at and examining the trees, and maybe not even that — more likely we are caught up in obsessing about leaves. The world needs our vision of the forest.
We are the birthers of today and the keepers of tomorrow, and we have mistakenly given this away. The baby of life is crying and our bodies, hearts, minds and souls were designed to wake up to this sound. Our agitation and stress are real and calling out to us with purpose.
It is the Mother who is wanted, the one who sees past the facts to the truth. We know intuitively the importance of letting go of the outcomes to care for the broken heart at hand, and stick with it knowing the all will be right if we stay connected to love and offer our natural care.
We are no longer the women and girls of the fairy tales. We do not need permission, we do not need to apologize, and we are called on to bring forth our power.
It is time to leave our safe hideouts, throw off our invisibility cloaks and be seen. With truth in hand, we will defeat shortsightedness, leaving the illusion of facts behind that have only served to trip us up.
Have you ever notice how facts change depending on who is saying them? Collectively we can care for our crying child, fierce mothers of love that we are. We cannot take no for an answer. It is time to answer our call for the sake of all women, all men, and all children.
This is the new radical feminism expressed in her own power.
**Kindness is one of our greatest strengths, but disembodied kindness, disconnected from wisdom, is what we know as nice, and separates us from our power.
*****
Ann Malabre has travelled the path of feminine experience in our society, and is ready to bring thoughts to words to actions. She is a homeschooling mother of four living in Gallatin Gateway, Montana. She trains horses, makes sculptures and presents workshops in NonViolent Communication in addition to dreaming in the return of true feminine power.
{Girl Power}
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