Prolifically Raw: Ghandi on Women Cont:

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Ghandi on Women Cont:

The quotes I listed in my last post are from a book called �Wisdom: 365 Thoughts from Indian Masters� and I was so grateful for them. I was grateful in the way of a woman who has been in the desert for her entire life and would be thrilled with a drop of water. And that�s what those quotes were. In the book they came from, they are the only four dedicated to the merits of women. Four out of 365 pages talk about women. The rest refer to men and man. Almost all are written by men too.

Where are the great women who tell us of a woman greatness? Where are the teachings of our mothers? Why do we bow at the feet of great men, so thankful for a tiny pittance of sustenance about our value?

I am so lonely for the women, for the mothers, for the great crones who can show us into the dark center of ourselves. I am no longer satisfied with drops of water, I don�t want to be in the desert, wasting away. As Clarissa Pinkola Estes (pictured here) points out: women are not here to merely survive, we are here to thrive.

Men will say, and they are correct, that to focus on gender issues is to be caught in the illusion of duality. But still, there is an undercurrent of discontent in me about the disparity between men and woman. This discontent has intuitive roots that hum me into action to shift this disparity and to put women (as well as awareness of the feminine within men) on a more equal footing. I truly believe our civilization cannot evolve past this current energetic reality until the feminine dynamic vibrates at an equal level to the masculine. Therefore, bringing women to awareness, awakening and enlightenment is my primary purpose. It is my life work!

And of course, this work begins with me. And so it goes.