Imagine A Woman
Oh the Joys did it again. Check out her post from today.
But I'm stealing this.
Imagine A Woman
Patricia Lynn Reilly
Imagine a woman
who believes it is right and good she is woman.
A woman who honors her experience and tells her stories.
Who refuses to carry the sins of others within her body and life.
Imagine a woman
who believes she is good.
A woman who trusts and respects herself.
Who listens to her needs and desires and meets them with tenderness and grace.
Imagine a woman
who has acknowledged the past's influence on the present.
A woman who has walked through her past.
Who has healed into the present.
Imagine a woman
who authors her own life.
A woman who exerts, initiates, and moves on her own behalf.
Who refuses to surrender except to her truest self and to her wisest voice.
Imagine a woman
who names her own gods.
A woman who imagines the divine in her image and likeness.
Who designs her own spirituality and allows it to inform her daily life.
Imagine a woman
in love with her own body.
A woman who believes her body is enough, just as it is.
Who celebrates her body and its rhythms and cycles as an exquisite resource.
Imagine a woman
who honors the face of the Goddess in her changing face.
A woman who celebrates the accumulation of her years and her wisdom.
Who refuses to use her precious life energy disguising the changes in her body and life.
Imagine a woman
who values the women in her life.
A woman who sits in circles of women.
Who is reminded of the truth about herself when she forgets.
Imagine yourself as this woman.
Copyright 1995 Patricia Lynn Reilly
posted by mimikatemom at
8:33 AM
16 Comments:
That gave me goosebumps. Amazing. Surprisingly enough, there are days that I feel like that, and I hope you have those days too.
Beautiful picture of the girls. Morgan is looking more like you every time I see her.
"no regrets"
I always find that one rather interesting. I don't know if it is stubborness, pigheadedness, conceit, stupidity, insensitivity, or all of the above. Sure, we don't regret a lesson learned or the experience and how it fits into our development, etc., etc., BUT(T), when we do something stupid and it is someone else's detriment (as well as our own), shouldn't we regret that? If our decisions or action or inaction result in hurting others (strangers as well as those close to us) as well as ourselves, shouldn't there be some "regret"? If action is taken in the interest of making ME a better person, a better and more complete "human" in the "long run" and that action hurts people - permanently or temporarily - shouldn't there be some regret? No splitting hairs please (i.e. guilt, remorse, second-guessing, hindsight, etc.).
Once you get to a place in life, regardless of what the talking heads say, it's not all about you any more. We can't make decisions that really are focused on ourselves and then somehow crowbar or rationalize others around us and deem that it was in their best interest, too. It's easy to do that and does make for a nice neat package, but it's untrue. That's not to say that we all need to be "pleasers" and "enablers" in order to "protect" everyone around us. We got to do what we got to do. But "no regrets", when I hear it, it's usually an eye-roller.
Sounds good though.
May all our girls be this woman.
Happy birthday!
L&K
ORF
This was an awesome post...
But, it's been 16 days. C'mon now, this isn't like you.
Happy Birthday, by the way. Now we're the same age again.
I hope I didn't break your concertina last night. It still sounded pretty good, considering it's age...
ORF
I take issue with GMAFB's attitude. If I have no regrets, it doesn't mean that I'm happy someone got hurt. That's ridiculous. "No regrets" doesn't mean that It's All About Me, I don't know where you even got that from. It just means that we can't live in the past and we should, as you say, learn from our past decisions, be them right or wrong.
No regrets doesn't mean we do whatever we want. It means we live life to the best of our ability and do what's right for ourselves at any particular time. To imply that someone is stubborn, pigheaded, conceited, stupid, and insensitive because they are living their best life is incredibly close-minded and superficial.
No one is suggesting that anyone should live in the past. You are correct, we need to move on, learn from our mistakes, etc.
Too many people look at "no regrets" as a sort of "self-absolution". We can't dwell in the past, we can't continually beat ourselves up for stupid or harmful or selfish things that we've done, but at the same time there should be some remorse or perhaps "regret" when we have committed those blunders.
Making mistakes is one thing. Making mistakes when we know better (which shouldn't be construed as a "mistake" - it's deliberate) or ought to know better or make them for selfish reasons or to stubbornly prove a point is truly regrettable. One consequence of making such a "mistake", and probably the least significant of the consequences, is that others may consider such an action in a negative light.
While we live and learn, there is (and should be) some regret and there are various consequences - some as trivial as how others perceive us - some as significant as how those around us, particularly those who look to us for us guidance, might see the world/life as a result of our deliberate action.
We seem to go to extremes. For far too many centuries many people were far too concerned about those around them and they neglected themselves. Today it seems that there are those who continually are neglecting those around them, perhaps unintentionally or unknowingly, as they go about living their regretless lives, attmpting to prove some stupid point or fight for some ridiculous (perhaps even self-fulfilling) cause.
That's ok, those around us are resilient and can adapt (right?).
I agree whole-heartedly that some people use "no regrets" as an easy out. However, for most of us, "no regrets" is obviously more symbolic than anything else. It helps us to accept the past and move forward.
As far as deliberatly hurting people or being selfish, I don't really understand where that came from. Mimikatemom is obviously not running around purposely doing stupid or harmful things- except on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
"No regrets" is like anything else. Some people will of course use it to their advantage. Those people suck.
I have No Regrets. The road was long and full of potholes and wrong turns, but I'm here, I'm queer, get used to it!!!
Or something like that.
Oh (?)
I regret nothing. What's the point? Live in the now. If you screwed something up, make amends and move on. No need to dwell on it. Learn from it, and don't let it happen again.
jj- you rock!!!!
gmafb...I don't know what axe you have to grind with Erin, but OBVIOUSLY you don't know her very well and you CERTAINLY don't know the whole story behind these issues you seem to have. You have a specific theme every time you comment. You are always alluding to selfishness and hurting others in order to fulfill one's own selfish wants and desires. You must lead the exemplary life to be so strong in your convictions that Erin is so totally evil and selfish. I'm sorry you don't know Erin like I do...you actually couldn't be more off base. BUT, if taking little digs at Erin makes you feel better about your life and yourself (you seem like an intelligent person...far smarter than wasting so much time trying to attack her), continue on. Just know that the rest of us who really know Erin don't enjoy your babbling and dismiss your comments as soon as they're read. Maybe it would help for you to just say what you need to say to her IN PERSON instead of making the rest of us "listn to it" post after post after post.
Erin who?
Can I wait to tell her in person after I'm paroled?
"I have no regrets. I wouldn't have lived my life the way I did if I was going to worry about what people were going to say."
Ingrid Bergman
Nice new post.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home