International Women's Day

I love that my birthday falls on International Women's Day. Affirmations honoring women light up my social media feeds all day long like little presents from the Universe. Below are some of the stories/resources/links focused on the feminine that I have found most interesting, sent to me by intelligent, creative, civically minded women in my own life:

1) Patriarchy Chicken - Friend and fellow feminist Lisa D. sent this me. I hadn't heard of it before, but I can't wait to try it (and then blog about the experience). Anyone else want to play?

2) The Pad Project - My military mom from what feels like another life sent me a text a week or so ago alerting me to the short documentary Period. End of sentence. and asking me for potential fundraising ideas for the pad project. Ginger - I tried to do the whole FB donate for my bday thing, but they aren't an approved organization :( But every little mention helps, right?

3) Sacred Femininity: What It Is & 3 Ways to Embrace It... - This article, by Gillian Sanger, is about how the West values mainly 'masculine' ways of moving through the world. One of my favorite passages from the article attributed to Sufi mystic LLewellyn Vaughan-Lee reads, " “…we live primarily masculine values; we are goal-oriented, competitive, driven. Masculine values even dominate our spiritual quest; we seek to be better, to improve ourselves, to get somewhere. We have forgotten the feminine qualities of waiting, listening, being empty. ” Gillian suggests mindful meditation (she gives us the great mantra, "I surrender to all that I do not understand"), movement/dance/play, and connecting to our sacral chakra as ways to reconnect with the feminine side in all of us.

It is not just outside institutionsm or the subconscious behavior of others that oppress women. We oppress ourselves...constantly. I'm reminded of an article I used to share with my students about how we, as women, continually undercut ourselves in our language by hedging, turning statements into questions via voice inflection, and incessant apologizing.

Enough already.

What you have to say is valuable.

It is worth hearing.

Always.