Sisterhood

So, we live in a time of great fear. No revelations here. We are terrified we won't have enough money. Once we get enough money we're terrified someone will take our money. Fearful our mate will leave us or scared blind that won't find the love of our lives. We're in lock-down with our children, no child left behind in the spectrum of all possible catastrophes; 'don't get hurt playing football!' 'Why doesn't my child want to play organized sports?!' We're conversely in turmoil that people are thinking too many things about us and that not enough people are thinking about us at all.

And today, talking to a powerful and intelligent man, a man who is in the 'know', we drifted to the conversation of women being sisters to each other vs. women who back-bite and claw. In his line of work, a trial lawyer, he admitted that he frequently sees the mean version of female. In my line of work I see just the opposite. Feeling myself get defensive (for not much of a good reason in this case, for this is a man who thinks my gender is beautiful inside and out) I told him my reality is the norm. Really...more often than not women behave like sisters toward each other. Statistically and anecdotally, women support our own kind more often than we back bite and steal, lie and cheat each other. Media doesn't want this truth to be know, for it doesn't sell as many issues as the other personification of women. In this day and age the only power available to us is the vicious kind, the kind we wield over each other like a sharp-edged saber. But that is the patriarchal concept of power: power-over. Women, in vast numbers all over the world, wield the female version of power: power-with.

Of course, we are human and if we perceive our lives to be threatened and we don't readily see the power of deep sisterhood in our lives, we will respond the way People magazine would have us believe is the norm. If we believe that our very survival is effected depending on whether that man loves us or this company hires us, and we have no other input to negate that fight or flight fear, we will respond accordingly. We will play dirty. But even with global living conditions for women heading ever-increasingly into the toilet, even though public health statistics for women and our babies show us to be in deeper mortal threat than even fifty years ago, most of us, most of the time, choose sisterhood. I've seen it in New Orleans in the wake of Katrina, in South Africa amidst the AIDS pandemic, in that part of Mexico now referred to as Texas...in fact, all over this world. Sisterhood.

And, just to let you know the power of this truth? Sisterhood is the next revolution. The only one. Sure solar power is great. Removing George Bush is still important. But if, as an intentional global practice, the women of the world stood together, cried together, told the truth together, raised our babies together, perhaps even lived together (yes, with out men), well...I do wonder where the world would be right about now? It's a beautiful thing to contemplate.

We Are All Masters....

Because of the way this whole journey seems to work, I don't often have the opportunity to gather women's stories anymore. I'm busy doing administrative, fund raising and strategic things. But yesterday I took the time to sit with a woman and hear her story. Every time I do this I am brought home to the simplicity and power of the vision of the GCW. Every time I sit with a woman and witness her Wisdom I am moved to tears (literally, always) by the beauty of the feminine principle. I am reminded of how damn lucky I am to have been born in this body, a female body, in all its mercurial perfection.

I often listen for the one moment in the story that feels like it is the reason I am gathering her story and not another woman. There is always (at least) one statement or paragraph that is that 'ah-hah' for me, the reminder that is exactly what I need in this very moment. So, Sharon, who is a wise and powerful soul, who has lived several lives as a midwife and mother, who could mother the entire planet without breaking a sweat, was speaking about the things we take on in this world that aren't really ours. In this breathtaking gentle-like-water voice she said, "Truly, all we have to remember is that we are all masters. Anything that takes us away from that is not ours, truly...it's not ours and we can simply let it go!"

I am on a path. You are on a path. There are times in our lives when we are faced with things that remind us of our human-ness; of the fact that we have hearts that get broken; times when our trust and faith get challenged, perhaps even shattered temporarily. Is this not a gift? Isn't this a moment that allows us to test the resolve of our knowing that we are all masters. That we can be completely heartbroken and know that we are still fully alive, still on our path. With Sharon's gentle permission, I stepped back on my path. With all the pain I had been feeling lately as I work to redefine an old relationship, I stepped back on my path and took a deep breath.

Thank you, thank you Sharon. We women have so much work to do, far more work than we're already doing. We'll only get there if we remember we are all masters...we are all beauty incarnate. We are all essential gorgeous beings. We can be broken hearted, we can grieve deeper than the earth's core. We can feel rage powerful enough to incinerate a redwood. We can do all this and realize that this is simply proof that we're on our path; alive and feeling, responding to a world that is hurting, grieving, raging, pulsating and thriving while she spins. In sisterhood we will remember this. In sisterhood we will set to work cultivating a planet in which all life is sacred. Aho.

A Theme...

Today I walked with a dear friend and sister...she took me to a place that has flowing water (rare for these parts). A place called Bear Creek with babbling, dancing, clear, breathtaking, affirming, flowing water. There is still snow on the ground right now, though not for long. The sun was shining brilliantly, the song birds singing joyously for Spring is most assuredly here.

As we walked we talked about our yearning, our longing, the sense of urgency that comes from living in a global culture that has silenced something that, to us, feels as crucial as water, as air, as oxygen. We talked about the starvation we feel for the wild and free creative spirit and energy that is the feminine herself. 'How do we survive?' 'How can we continue to struggle with concepts like money and rent and profession, when all we care about is finding, celebrating and dwelling within Her?'

We acknowledged that so much of our daily thought and energy is taken up with our projection, onto other women in our community, of perfection. We imagine that other women have figured out the money thing, that other women have figured out the partnership thing, that other women are having regular mind-blowing, spiritually fulfilling, deeply honoring sexual encounters. And yet, I have not met a woman who truly has. For the last five years (really, for my whole life) I have been a woman to whom other women speak their Truth. It has just happened that way. And certainly that is why I am doing what I'm doing now: resurrecting and celebrating female Truth as if human survival depended upon this one task. I can say that despite appearances I have yet to meet a woman who is not struggling under the weight of urgency, of longing, of loneliness, of deep primal (primary) desire. This has become our common female odyssey, even if we refuse to acknowledge it.

And so, I am left, once again, wondering what might happen if all women committed to speaking our Truth. Really...if you knew you were alone in the forest, with only the songbirds and the trees to hear you, what would you utter? What burden would you lay down? What Truth rests heavy on your shoulders, or in your heart? What if you knew that the fate of the world rested upon your utterance of this familiar Truth? What if it were really that simple...what would you dare speak to the hills, to the birds, to the sky?

As my dear sister and I came to the end of our walk, we arrived at a spot on the trail that the sun had thawed. It was as inviting a spot as I've ever experienced. There we removed our shoes and socks and let our bare feet sink deep into the wet ground. The mud was thick and rich and warm. We walked and pranced and prayed in silence as the wet earth seeped up between our toes saying "Yes...this is yours. Now, what will you do with it?"

This moment, every moment, is yours and yours alone. You are here right now. Take off your shoes, sink your feet into the rich earth and let the mud seep deep. Speak loudly and assuredly...tell someone your Truth and do it as if all life depended upon the success of your endeavor...because dear sisters, it most assuredly does...

A Beautiful Ceremony...

As promised we held a welcoming ceremony tonight, to offer some of the first story excerpts that were gathered from our Texas/New Mexico trip and to tell stories of the journey, of the women, of the land. Men, women and children gathered in my 900 square foot home to witness and read and ask questions...to help us 'land' from a journey that, I'm now convinced, won't ever truly be done.

It was a powerful evening. First of all, we don't usually do our Story Spirals with men. And tonight we had beautiful, strong, reverent men in the room. It worked. It is healing to provide space in which men and women can speak their truth knowing all that will happen is deep listening and respect. It is healing every time.

It was also powerful because a sampling of the beautiful wisdom that was spoken to us on our trip was unveiled and offered into the world. Only the beginning for sure. But already, within moments of the evening conclusion, I had received an email from one of the men in the circle. As he had left the gathering he had asked if he could take one of the excerpts home because he was so moved by its innate poetry. In his email he offered the story transcribed into a poem, each phrase powerfully honored by the addition of space on both ends. The title of the excerpt-turned-poem is 'The Weight of Her Burden'.

There is nothing like being witnessed by another person, nothing like being truly seen. And the process tonight was not only a chance for the women who just returned from this journey to be welcomed home, our travels to be commemorated. Far more, this evening was about honoring and witnessing what is quickly becoming a globally vibrant conversation and offering...and the power of having men as part of this journey is a long-time dream of the GCW's founding members...Thank you....

Women in Reality

A Few years ago, as I was just beginning to put the conversation together that is now the Global Culture of Women, I became obsessed with gathering women. Luckily, I have very forgiving friends, for despite the fact that I bombarded my circle with new classes, workshops, interviews, councils (you name it, they came) they still talk to me today.

One of the offerings that came out of that period of this ever-shifting journey is a course/conversation called "Women in Theory & Reality". The goal was to illuminate the disparities between the mythology of our female lives and the actual, ground zero, reality. The idea being that if we women actually told the full Truth of our lives this would unleash transformation on the planet like nothing we could imagine. This belief is largely what inspired the GCW. Muriel Ruckeyser said, "What if one women told the truth about her life? The world would split open." We live in a world of double-speak. We live in a world that has been spin-doctored to the point where even we, women, often put a saccharine coating over our own realities, even with our closest friends.

For this reason, it has been one of the long-standing desires of the GCW vision not to allow it to get too bogged down in descriptive words. Really, there aren't words within the English language to describe this vision anyway. We won't be missing much by keeping Her safe from jargon. In 'The Great Hoop of Life' Paula Underwood states "English is one of those languages based on naming things rather than describing them. As such it trains us to categorize everything that comes into our lives, in spite of the fact that so many things are neither this nor that."

To know the full reality of our female lives (both the incredible despair and the infinite breathtaking beauty) we have only to take ourselves to the land I just returned from: the borderlands of Texas, the country that is neither this nor that. Where people have been living on land their mother's, mother's, mother & father farmed. Where heritage means you can remember ten generations back because your ancestors made a point of telling their stories and their grandchildren made a point of listening to them. Where a wall is being built that separates families and communities that have been within walking distance of each other for centuries. Where Mexican men, women and children are incarcerated and held without bail or representation for months on end. Here there is no saccharine coating strong enough to cover reality. And it is most certainly not this or that...it is both/and and everything in between. Like the micro-pollutants alive and well within the Rio Grande on any given day coupled with the fact that it is impossible to negate the innate serpentine beauty of that river...it is both/and.

The reality of our female lives is an intimate indicator of the reality of all life on the planet. This trip showed me, in vivid and sometimes shockingly grotesque detail, that all life is in grave jeopardy. Yet the irony of this moment is that in order to get out of it, in order to change it, we have to allow ourselves to be motivated not by what is wrong but by what is so perfectly right. We have to allow ourselves to perceive, be blown away by and remain fiercely dedicated to, the beauty and perfection that is all around us all the time. Armed with these visions, the grotesque, unjust and inhumane could be reversed, healed and transformed easier and faster than waiting for an elected official to do it for us.

Each day, day in and day out, for the 22 days we were on the road, I witnessed the most extraordinary Love and devotion to life. The most extraordinary unconditional nurturing, humanity and courage. The most extraordinary generosity, faith and trust. Over and over I saw this in the women whom we sat with, as they told stories, spoke their Truth. Each time a woman speaks her Truth the spin-doctored mythology of our lives is split wide open and in this space, in this schism, Love is the only thing that grows. And let me tell you, from where I sit, it's nothing but gorgeous...

Border Beauty

Sitting with Martha in her outdoor sanctuary in Terlingua Texas, mid-morning: This town is directly on the border of Mexico...on a clear day you can see the mountains of Mexico looming large and beautiful. Martha grew up just north of here in a town called Marfa, a roaring metropolis compared to the tranquility of this beautiful, ancient town. Terlingua is the town that became famous for, among other reasons throughout history no doubt, the length of miles the high school kids had to go to get to school – over an hour by bus each way, each day, on winding roads through the hills all the way up to Alpine, Texas. Needless to say, the drop-out rate was enormous. That’s all been remedied now thanks to a Superintendent who was focused on the education of the children in her district. Now they stay right there in town and attend school.

As she told pieces of her own story, Martha spoke about her Woman's Voice. This is her passion. At 45 she is feeling a very different Voice alive within her - one that doesn't really worry what others think about, that is concerned first and foremost with speaking her values. She is a school teacher, a librarian, an avid gardener, an activist, a mother of two teenage boys, a wife and a woman's woman (she is aligned with the women in her community and speaks of this connection and female community as her lifeline). When I asked her what helps her stay strong in her Voice she looked around her and acknowledged the abundance of nature that thrives in this arid, hot environment; the plant life she has surrounded herself with...a patio overlooking the Chisos Mountains of Big Bend (incidentally, their outhouse shares this same sublime view, complete with a 270 degree view of Mexico and a composting toilet). Her garden 'room' (for this is truly their living room) is surrounded by a dry rock wall that curves in the most female fashion around their property perched on the hill. Plants are everywhere...really, everywhere. They’re growing out of pots, out of cracks, out of walls...out of each other’s pots, everywhere you look there are plants overflowing their containers. Martha says, “I have to have my hands in dirt, it’s the Mother, the Source. I think we all, all women, must put their hands in dirt, even if it’s just in a pot that is in our house.” Thanks to Blythe (who is constantly aware of the visual representation of the energy that is in front of her) I am looking at every woman's hands and Martha's are powerful - earth hands.

After we said goodbye to Martha and worked our way down the winding desert driveway, our ever-expanding car was newly adorned with three gorgeous plants in two big pots. She gifted us with Agave, Aloe and Blooming Onion pips from her garden. The Blooming Onion is Border tradition; when a woman has to leave the area for some tragic reason the women gift her with a Blooming Onion and it’s her responsibility to let them know when it blooms...like announcing the birth of a child, the word spreads like wildfire through the grapevine that so-and-so’s onion has had “babies!”

Refinement...

Many months ago, when the awareness of this trip made its way into my consciousness, I said ‘yes’ for several reasons. For the last several years I have tried to practice offering those thoughts and ideas that I perceive as ‘mine’ up to the world with no expectations that I have found an ‘answer’ or that I am ‘right’. It feels to me that, if they survive this trial by fire, if they still feel ‘true’ after they’ve been handled and passed around, then they are true. And also, in a bold departure from my cultural indoctrination, it has been my experience that truly co-created ideas are the strongest ideas. They are often ideas that not only blend the wisdom of the current cognizant generations but also those that have come before.

So, I said ‘yes’ to this walkabout because it felt as if it was time to simply offer this project up to everyone and anyone. It was time to leave home, hit the road, stop in towns we had never heard of until we bought the map. It was time to sit with women whom we had never met before that moment; time to invite each and every woman who was interested to join this conversation, offer their wisdom and step in as midwives. It felt like all this was crucial to the truth of this vision. And, with still one week to go, this trip has provided exactly this (and so much more that isn’t easily conveyed in words).

This trip has delivered a quickening and refinement of the vision, so much so that it feels as if the mission statement needs to be revisited.

This ‘project’ is less of an entity than it is a calling, an INVITATION. She is an invitation to all women to speak our truth and wisdom to each other. “What if one woman told the truth of her life?” asks Muriel Rukeyser. “The world would split open.” Yesterday I told my story to Janet Meek, midwife, earth-mama and revolutionary heart-centered female being. After I said my last words, blew my nose and looked up at her through teary eyes she said, “I feel like my heart has been split open.”

It is not that we must gather women’s stories. First and foremost, we must tell our stories.

Our stories, each and every one of them, are medicine. Each story provides us a way home.

The Global Culture of Women is an invitation for women to speak our Truth and Wisdom. It is a loom on which the great and gorgeous collective body of Women can weave the individual threads of our Female Wisdom and Truth together, creating a new tapestry of human consciousness.