”It is that holy poetry and singing we are after. We want powerful words and songs that can be heard underwater and over land. It is the wild singing we are after, our chance to use the wild language we are learning by heart under the sea. When a woman speaks her truth, fires up her intention and feeling, staying tight with the instinctive nature, she is singing, she is living in the wild breath-stream of the soul. To live this way is a cycle in itself, one meant to go on, go on, go on.”
A poem for our times from Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes:
–When someone says, “We’re saying the same thing.” Say, “We are not saying the same thing.”
–When someone says, “Don’t question, just have faith.” Say, “I am questioning, vato, and I have supreme faith in what I think.”
–When someone says, “Don’t defy my authority.” Say, “There is a higher authority that I follow.”
–When someone says, “Your ideas are seductive.” Say, “No, my ideas are not seductive, they are substantial.”
–When someone says, “Your ideas are dangerous.” Say, “Yes, my ideas are dangerous, and why are you so afraid hombre o mujer? ”
–When it is said, “It’s just not done.” Say, “It will be done.”
–When it is said, “It is immature.” Say, “All life begins small and must be allowed to grow.”
–When it is said, “It’s not thought out.” Say, “It is well thought out.”
–When they say, “You’re over-reacting.” Say, “You’re under-reacting, vato.”
–When they say, “You’re being emotional.” Say, “Of course I have well placed emotions, and by the way, what happened to yours?”
–When they say, “You’re not making any sense.” Say, “I don’t make sense, I am the sense.”
–When they say, “I can’t understand you when you’re crying.” Say, “Make no mistake, I can weep and be fierce at the same time.”
–When they say, “I cant understand you when you’re being so angry.” Say. “You couldn’t hear me when I was being nice, or sweet or silent, either.”
–When someone says, “You’re missing the point.” Say, “I’m not missing the point, but you seem to be missing my point — What are you so afraid of?”
–When someone says, “You are breaking the rules.” Say, “Yes, I am breaking the rules.”
–When someone says, “That’s not practical.” Say, “It’s practically a done deal, thank you very much.”
–When it is said, “No one will do it, believe you, or follow it.” Say, “I will do it, I will believe in it, and in time, the world may well follow it.”
— When it is said, “No one wants to listen to that.” Say, “I know you have a hard time listening to that.”
–When it is said, “It’s a closed system, you cant change it.” Say, “I’m going to knock twice and if there is no answer, then I am going to blow the doors off that system and it will change.”
–When it is said, “They’ll ignore you.” Say, “They won’t ignore me and the hundreds of thousands who stand with me.”
–When they say, “It’s already been done.” Say, “It’s not been done well enough.”
— When they say, “It’s not yet time.” Say, “It’s way past time.”
–When they say, “It’s not the right day, right month, right year.” Tell them, “The right year was last year, and the right month was last month, and the right day was yesterday, and you’re running behind schedule, vato, and what in the name of God and all that is holy are you going to do about it?”
–When they say, “Who do you think you are?” — tell them … tell them who you are, and don’t hold back.
–When they say, “I put up with it, you’ll have to put up with it too.” Say, “No, no, no, no.”
–When they say, “I’ve suffered a long time and you’ll have to suffer too.” Say, “No, no, no, no.”
–When they say, “You’re an incorrigible, defiant, hard to get along with, unreasonable woman … ” Say, “Yes, yes, yes, yes …
and I have worse news for you yet — we are teaching our daughters, and our mothers, and our sisters … we are teaching our sons, and our fathers, and our brothers, to be just like us.”
This was Inspired by the faces of the women of Congress watching Trump’s State of the Union speech…
Blah blah blah Blah blah Are you trying to impress me? Because it’s not working. What exactly is your point? Maybe there isn’t one. Maybe you simply love the sound of you own voice.
Blah blah blah Blah blah This voice of authority Lecture series of yours Bores me spit-less. Oh, I’ve smiled politely For my entire life As ‘important’ guys Explained the world to me. It’s getting old, so old.
Blah blah blah Blah blah It’s way past time To reveal my true face. My nobody cares face. My you’re so full of shit face. My do you impress yourself face. My holy Hell, who put you in charge face.
In the past they burned us, because they thought we were witches. Just because we knew what to do with herbs outside the kitchen because we knew how to dance, how to seduce, how to pray. Because we moved with the cycles of the moon.
In the past they burned us alive because they knew that we are witches. So now we cast spells with our mouths pieces of our hearts spill out. It is incredible, the power of a woman who is not afraid to say ‘no’.
No we won’t sit any longer while you ponder on our rights. On our rights to give or not give life. On our rights to make another woman our wife. On our rights to be safe, to get paid an equal wage. To have a voice, in a place where we might make a change.
It is incredible, the amount of ways they have slayed just to keep us small. If they could’ve they probably would’ve burned us all. But they couldn’t with fire so they did it with words. Laid down laws to determine the amount of our worth. They kept us in contracts. They separated our circles. Erased us from pages and made labour saving devices our saviors.
It is incredible how quickly knowledge can fade. How much effort was invested to lead us astray.
But we will notcome quietly.
Well, there’s another thing they tried to take away. Our rights to exclaim our orgasms ecstatically. We will not come quietly. We will open our mouths and let our spells spill out. Cast poetic prayers into the night so that every woman can hear the howl of her sister’s delight, reminding her that her voice deserves to be heard.
Let her jaw drop. Let her shame stop. Let her body scream under the self pleasure of what it means to be a woman who can speak freely. You see words, they carry meaning. They have fooled us for so long that ‘no’ means ‘yes’. So much so that I’m almost impressed. Except I finally discovered they’re right.
So I’ve claimed back that ‘no’ as mine. Because every ‘no’ I throw against their forces is another ‘yes’ I retain for my own self-worth.
It is a spell cast for my own protection. It is incredible, the power of a woman who is not afraid to say NO.
And this old witch? I’m done with broomsticks. I’m done with ‘know your place’. This witch knows that some knowledge just won’t fade. That every woman is my sister. Through the hubble and the bubble and the toil and the trouble we grow stronger when we cast our spells together.
We entered the fire. Now we rise from the ashes and we are holding our candles and lighting our matches until the night becomes lighter and our voices can grow because we have remembered we are witches and we have learned to say ‘NO’.
Lots of women are online today lecturing the women who marched in one of the Women’s Marches across the country. Apparently, lots of women feel the need to dictate to other women exactly how they should protest… even telling them not to feel happy about a peaceful march, insisting that the peace and joy the marchers experienced was all bogus because the crowd was “too white.” Lots of women are also lecturing other women about the best way to support minority women. Lots of women are judging and guilting and dismissing other women today… Is this really helpful?!
Sorry ladies, but you don’t get to define me. You don’t get to dictate what my protests look like. You don’t get to guilt me simply because I’m a middle class white woman. You don’t get to tell me what kind of sign to carry or hat to wear when I protest. You don’t get to dismiss me because I marched with a smile and didn’t scream in rage and burn shit. You don’t get to poo poo my commitment because I don’t protest the way you do.
I will choose when and how I take political action. I will choose when and how I speak out and act. It is MY choice, NOT YOURS!
✧
When one group lectures another about how to behave and how to feel, it sounds suspiciously like old patriarchal Bullshit to me – even when women do it to other women.
EVERY woman needs the space to take political action and express herself in the way that’s most appropriate to her WITHOUT being judged and lectured by other women – and that includes white women from the suburbs!
We won’t fix this mess by telling one group of women to shut up and stuff their feelings, their needs, their wisdom in order to serve another group of women who now take precedence.
We want change, right? Real change? That requires creating a space where ALL women can dialogue with each other and be heard with respect and love. That’s true inclusivity.
“The language by which we have been taught to dismiss ourselves and our feelings as suspect is the same language we use to dismiss and suspect each other.”
