Stand Your Ground

“I have come to learn,
that when people of money and power organize
to set upon to break a person they seek to silence,
and the person seems but a shadow of what they were,
under the endless barrage,
in the end when laid to rest,
the dignity, compassion and presence of the person
somehow endures,
and their words awaken to speak clearer than before.
As if torches ignite, when their flame is gone,
and the light of their truth,
Is brilliantly lit and once more born.”
― Tom Althouse

Women have never been encouraged to speak their mind in our earlier generations.  Now, more than ever, we need to speak up.  There is a generation of young adult women who speak whatever comes to their minds without a sense of how it might affect another.  Bullying is high amongst women.  Adult women are doing everything they can to wear down/break down other young women.  Speech has dwindled to coded words, newly accepted words, and flippant selfies and they think they are having their say.  We are a generation, soon lost, that remembers Woodstock, standing u against War and peace movements in the world.  That kind of courage and empowerment is pretty much lost to the world now.  Those of us, who remember, must gird up our loins and  take a stand in these misbegotten societies we find ourselves in. 

We need to practice.  I think our voices have been arguing about inequality and me too movements and politicians with each other instead of gathering in empowered groups to make the world a better place to be.  Behold!  Your Journal, and a blank page waiting for you to practice on.

What, in the world, do you feel passionate about?  Consider that you should feel enough is enough and are going to make a poster, a letter, a poem, that expresses your outrage, passion, or sense of indignity.

Show the "I" showing your strength and depth of your belief.  Show what you believe.  Write/show your reasons for feeling so passionate about such.  Show, in some way, or express in some way, what you hope comes of your passion. 

You can, if writing in your journal, declare what you want to happen.  Write/paint until you feel like you have expressed how deeply you believe/feel about what you are passionate about.  

You should be able to see, feel, your passion coming through the journal page.  What colors show your passion?  What objects, how you show the "I", matters.  Speak up on your page.   What you value says a great deal about you.  At the core of what you are passionate about, is the story of why.  Is your poster/piece/writing well defined and make people want to know more about you, so it shows how passionate you are? 

Have your say, sister friends.  Do one, do two pages, even start a new journal where you can add things you are passionate about.  Strengthen your voice.  Bravo, courageous and dear-hearted soul!

©Carol Desjarlais 8.19.19