Happy International Women’s Day!
International Women’s Day is a global celebration of women – marking social, economic, cultural, and political achievements, as well as a call to action to support and expedite women’s equality.
The theme for 2021 is choose to challenge. The IWD’s website states:
“A challenged world is an alert world. Individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions – all day, every day.
We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world.”
To all the women in the world, today I wish I could give each one of you a flower and tell you how beautiful you are. How your presence makes a difference; how you are a blessing manifest; how with each breath you contribute a bit of your spirit to the collective, and how we’re all hungry for you to shine your you-ness as brightly and as widely as you can.
What if we each knew we weren’t broken, that we were respected, that we were cherished, that equity of resources didn’t depend on our gender or color or age – how different would the world be?
I’ve always loved the expression “Women Hold Up Half of the Sky.” That image is so expansive and so powerful, so individual AND so collective. And that’s how a day of celebration for women feels to me – individual and collective.
I am blessed to have so many beautiful women in my life, and I hope that’s true for you as well.
The other day I was hunting down a journal and instead found one I had done in a collaborative project with a friend. We called the project Lost Souls, and we each created visual characters in our respective journals, and then traded them so we could write stories about each other’s characters. The above picture is a character I named Mariposa, and my friend wrote a story about how she didn’t speak – at least not in words but communicated with flowers. It was a story that held an essential truth about me that I needed to see reflected back to me because I couldn’t see it straight on.
That’s what beautiful is all about. And this is how women do it. In relationship. We hold up mirrors for each other. Look. See how beautiful you are. And don’t stop shining.
So what can you do to celebrate yourself? To celebrate the women in your life?
And what can you do to celebrate and honor women collectively? Where can you put your heart and hands that help other women be full?
If you’re looking for some inspiration maybe you’ll want to check out Half the Sky Movement: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women.
Leave a comment – I love hearing from you. Tell me the ways in which you are beautiful. Tell me who you’re celebrating. What woman would you give flowers to?
Hari OM
I would definitely give flowers to and celebrate our First Minister (Scotland), who is being put through the wringer at the moment. Being in a leadership role is always going to have some compromises but she is surely carrying a larger burden than is her due – and its source is her predecessor, and someone she once trusted. Power and the misuse of it is not entirely the male domain, but sadly, is predominantly so and all too often it is the females and offspring who bear the brunt.
It could be that the blogs are a ‘celebration’ of myself; if I have a ‘beauty’ it is the ability to see beauty all around, even in the industrial and the junk. I have been a mentor in the past – and may yet have more times to support others who are working out their potential. For now, though, I choose respite!
Sending sisterly etherhugs dear blogpal – stay strong and stay well. YAM xx
Thumbs up for your choice of whom to celebrate. And you’re certainly right about leadership. And your ability to see beauty.
Here’s to finding as much respite as you wish, and to return to mentoring if it so pleases you when the time feels right. I think this is a well-deserved time of nurturing and nourishing yourself after a long haul. Sending hugs back your way, celebrating you, and wishing you all the best always.
I could never do without my female friends; they are such a support and strength to me, as I always try to be for them. We not only hold up the sky, but the world as well.
Lovely sentiment Margaret!
Hi Deborah – lovely post highlighting particular aspects of life on this earth – women are 50% of this world and we hold much up – the sky and so much more … we need to be supportive of each other and all around us. We need to love this world in all its parts … it is beautiful and we are so lucky to be here and able to live life. Stay safe – Hilary
Yes, yes, yes, to all you’ve said Hilary. May our love be never-ending, our support truly nurturing and may we remain in delight of our presence here on this beautiful planet.
Hi Deborah – I hope my comment hasn’t gone missing … I’m checking!
It arrived safe and sound, simply caught for a moment in the ethers I imagine.
Thank you Deborah for the offering of your beautiful self and the recognition that we are beautiful. We need to have this reflected back to us as you had happen to you in the journal story of the other reflecting back to you what you say in flowers.
Re your questions … I do celebrate myself – most often it is when someone says something kind or complimentary about me even if they do not know me directly. Which is always a reminder to me to be kind to all I know, even those I don’t. That all lives are to be celebrated. I’ll check your link at a later stage, thank you.
It’s lovely, isn’t it, Susan, to get a kindness offered by someone we don’t know directly? I love thinking of it as a cosmic wink reminding me that heart connections happen whether we know about them or not.
Thank you, Deborah. Keep on shining your you-ness brightly–the world needs it! I would give a flower to my mother on this day, and tell her how much she is loved and remembered every single day of my life.
What a beautiful honoring of your mother Josna! And thank you for your kind words.