Woman

Dear woman,

I see you.

I see all of the ways you have shrunk yourself to be more palatable to others.

I see the dreams, ideas, desires you abandoned in favour of what was socially acceptable.

I see the ways you shape-shifted and contorted yourself to get into rooms and remain there.

I see the ways you convince yourself this is good enough; even though that small whisper says: but I want it to be great.

I see you repeating what you learned from the women you grew up with: sacrificing yourself, your wants, your needs, your desires;

and calling it LOVE.

I see you in your over-giving: perhaps this will make them see me, you think.

I see you in your disappointment: it feels like I don’t matter.

I see you in your proving: if I achieve this, they will value me.

I see you in your wanting: what will it take for me to finally feel like myself?

I see you and I love you because your journey is mine also.

And here’s what I know for sure:

We are meant to take up space.

We are meant to move on our dreams, our ideas, our desires; no explanations given.

We are meant to break free of cultural, religious and societal expectations: whose life is it anyway?

We are meant to grow and evolve over time: to be the walking embodiment of LIFE;

Overflowing, abundant and teeming with possibility.

We are meant to experience the deep, nourishing, replenishing quality of love without sacrifice.

We are meant to receive in equal proportion to what we give; without guilt and overwhelm.

We are meant to remember our worth, our value, our wholeness as truths we inherited the moment we took our first breath.

Because this world needs us to remember:

---

ourSELVES,

Whole

Vibrant

Beautiful

Resourced

Rooted

Clear

Awake

---

In full ownership of ALL that we are; powerFULL, sovereign and free.

This is the work,

this is the reclaiming,

this is the rewriting,

this is the refining,

this is the devotion,

this is the rising:

and this is the time.