This was the favorite thing that I heard yesterday. Well, actually, it was all my favorite.
The Tower Theatre in Bend was full to the brim of eager and passionate women yesterday. It's impossible to paraphrase what all was said, all the thoughts and ideas conjured, but if the goal of this weekend's conference was to inspire, it worked, at least with me.
Some tidbits:
Naseem Rahka, author of The Crying Tree, spoke about the power of forgiveness. Freshly arrived from a residency in the Grand Canyon, her description of what healing can happen in the presence of the great timeline that is that place- how realizing your own insignificance can release such power and hope- reminded me of my own trip to the Alvord Desert a couple years back. Time to get my backpack out, I think.
Jensine Larsen spoke about the power of connecting women (especially those in countries where they are trafficked and marginalized) in the world. She is the mastermind behind World Pulse. This could be the vehicle to Mountain Moving Day. Go. Join. Now.
And Dr. Terarai Trent finished the day, telling her story and advocating for the power of Dreaming. She literally buried her dream to educate herself, written on a piece of paper, under a rock near her home in Zimbabwe. "Mother Earth will always remind you of your dreams," she said. And so, a woman who was married off at the age of eleven (a typical cycle that she HAD to break) eventually got her Doctorate. Now she builds schools, and inspires people. Simple stuff. Brilliant stuff.
And then there was the stuff in between. The women from this wonderful community in Bend that introduced, and spoke, and inspired, and held space.
And now, to integrate all these things.
Mountain Moving Day
Yosano Akiko
“Mountain moving day has come”.
is what I say. But no one believes it.
Mountains were just sleeping for a while.
Earlier they had moved with fire.
But you do not have to believe it.
O people! You’d better believe it!
All the sleeping women move
Now that they awaken.
From Hamil and Gibson, River of Stars: the Selected Poems of Yosano Akiko
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