My mom used to wake me up in the morning before school with the words “rise and shine, the light has come”. It was completely and utterly annoying, especially as a teenager, but as I reflect on her message, I now value the perfection of her morning mantra. These words are from a biblical passage (Isaiah 60:1) which I was strongly encouraged / forced to learn during “sword drills” in the G.A.s (Girls Auxiliary) at the First Baptist Church of Concord, NC where our teacher literally opened a bible to some random page, and I was expected to recite the passage by heart. Oh, and with a timer! Yep, that was the First Baptist Church of Concord where all the girls are pretty, pious, and biblically literate. Or at least most of them. I’ll just say those drills were not my shining moment! But by hook or by crook I did learn a lot of them which are beautiful, and many times brilliantly written. They’ve also come in handy a time or two in conversation with a well-meaning disciple of Jesus who really needs me to see the light, become straight again, and or come back to Christ whom I’ve never actually left. But in truth and because I’m intrigued by all manner of spirituality / life, I have enjoyed a romp with some other very attractive deities, run wild with a few hard-liner atheists, and bellied up to a cauldron or two with some highly gifted witches. And speaking of witches…all strong women hold the innate wisdom to heal, coordinate, consolidate, and magically get things done. It’s what we do. And, why it makes such morbid sense for our patriarchal forefathers to burn us at the stake in a public grotesque practice designed to torture some of our very unlucky sisters and control all the others.
Whether you’re a man or a woman if you consider yourself a decider of another’s soul, body, or thoughts or if you’re OK with those that do, then you might be a part of the patriarchy. It’s alright though, we’ve all been indoctrinated from birth and sometimes it takes a while to unpack our thoughts and assumptions that mostly well-meaning teachers, parents, religions, and governments have modeled for us. But make no mistake the patriarchy doesn’t work for the whole. Look around at our relationships, our communities, our world. We’re not utilizing the brilliance of the balance. Our imbalance of masculine over feminine energy has caused chaos and trauma to both men and women for centuries. Just as we don’t benefit from a male dominated society, we wouldn’t benefit from the opposite either. Inside the balance is our true power.
That said, who wouldn’t like to see a counsel of women deciding on the deeply embedded hatred and terror happening in Gaza right now?
Looking in the mirror sans personal illusion is as hard as it is courageous. But we all need to do it and see where we can re-think, re imagine and help ourselves become truer. I have nothing but respect for anyone’s passion to do what their heart tells them but it’s probably wise for us to remember that there are many paths to God, peace, or enlightenment; and respect for another’s choice of deity, path or chosen discipline is crucial. The world seems an incredibly dark place right now stemming from lack of understanding or tolerance of another’s religious beliefs, lifestyle, and personhood. It feels unjust, uncertain, and insane. Which is the perfect time to own our power, shine our light and remember that one simple concept; loving our neighbor as we love ourselves which could save us and the whole world a lot of trouble.
OK that’s it. Just be the light and all the rest will work out. Or I hope so.
Is anyone else feeling the intensity and contradiction of living right now? Is anyone else wanting to ask the ego driven, self-informed, destructive men running this chaos to please sit down, stay quiet for a moment while a few well-informed women or men with some sense of balance take the helm to right this ship/world?
Thanks as always for reading and I hope you’ll leave your comments below.