Voice and Expression

Hello and happy New Year! 2016 brings forth images of a clean slate and new beginnings, despite the impending Mercury Retrograde that begins on Monday. We may have an opportunity revisit our actions of the last few weeks for greater clarity and to re-examine the energy we put into certain conversations or practices.

I recently saw a movie called Suffragette; it is a period film set in the early 1900's in Britain, and shines light upon the early women's movement of that time, when women were struggling for the right to vote. This movie deeply impacted me. As a female living in a "free" country with full voting rights, I realize I have taken it for granted in my lifetime that I have a voice, that my voice and my vote count for something. I have a vague awareness of the women's movement and that somewhere along the line women were not able to vote in the United States and at some point that changed. But i had never really studied how this came about. In my mind's eye, there were maybe a few conversations were women pointed out their need to vote and men acquiesced.

Suffragette provided details of women really went through, the lives they had that led them to the need to vote, the abuse at the hands of men in power, the plight of the poor and disadvantaged. I learned that the women who came before me had to fight tooth and nail to change this outdated power structure, one in which only men had a say. Women that I don't know marched in the streets, set the world on fire, took a risk, and some lost their lives: in short, it was a fight. The old adage,
I stand on the shoulders of those who came before me, has been burned in my mind since viewing this film.

I realize I have made a mistake in making it something casual that I have a say and can vote. At the end of the film, there was a powerful credit reel at the end where it lists various countries and the year in which women received the right to vote; at the tail end is Saudi Arabia, where women are still in the struggle.

This being an election year, blogging about this film and this issue feels timely. As a woman I recently met said, "this is the best time and place to be alive as a woman." I am feeling more deeply what this means: the right to own property, to be protected from harm, to have creative expression, to Love God in whatever way one feels drawn - to have one's voice be heard. I plan to take more action on this in 2016, to make my voice heard, to make my life matter. Of course, it goes beyond a shameless plug urging you to make your voices heard through the vote: there are a lot of ways to self express and make your voice heard.

Because, as the saying goes, I stand on the shoulders of those who came before me.

Namaste,
Jane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=056FI2Pq9RY