Musing on All the Women

In honor of National Women's History Month, I started reflecting upon all the women I've admired and learned from since my arrival on Earth. Here is a partial list, only because I can't possibly recall every single one. If you want to try this list to inspire yourself, you can bring it to a higher level by writing character traits and qualities of each of the women you list. Then read over those qualities, put a hand over your heart, and know that you contain a bit of each of them or you would not be drawn to them. 

• My sisters, mother, grandmothers, aunts, cousins, niece, daughter
• Leslie Marmon Silko
• Joy Harjo
• Naomi Shihab Nye
• Gwendolyn Brooks
• Harriet Tubman
• Sojourner Truth
• Ida B. Wells
• Michelle Obama
• Wangari Maathai
• Rachel Carson
• Friends Ingrid, Regina, Tana, Kathleen, three Leslies
• Sherry Richert Belul
• Pema Chodron
• Molly Hahn, aka Mollycules
• Transcription colleagues
• Fifth grade teacher, Barb Trujillo
• Epidemiology, Genetics, Botany, Microbiology high school teachers Ms. Russell and Ms. Cotton
• Any fellow single mom I've ever met
• Any mom of a child with a life-threatening illness
• Any woman who enjoys her own company 
• Any Tree Sister
• Countless fiber artists and knitwear designers whose work I admire, too many to name
• Cary and Mully, two foundational women in my community's social safety net
• Three piano teachers who brought me from beginning at age 7 to a music conservatory at 17
• Women volunteers and staff at Ronald McDonald House, food bank, domestic violence office, hospitals
• Peace Pilgrim

Striving toward feeling safe is my biggest lifelong achievement. I wonder how many men seek safety most of their lives? Probably quite a few, but feeling truly safe in my own body, my mind, and in the world has been the longest journey, and I've often wondered if that is primarily a woman's underlying condition or a human one. Times when I've felt safe, I find it hard to sink into that fully and trust it, so I am super grateful to be in a place where I am surrounded by natural environments during the pandemic. Not sure how long I can cling to remaining financially, but there goes the mind spinning off into the catastrophic future ... breathe, and I'm back here and now. 

A free retreat anyone may enjoy is Global Sisterhood from March 6-8. I'll be dipping in as obligations allow. 

Sunset Meditation on Sky and Water

Recent knits on an accidental color theme