You, you’re a revolution.\ A red-violet, hint of indigo,\ unnamed shade of excellence.\ The spark, maybe silent,\ to ignite a wildfire dream.
She, she’s the wind.\ An effortless glow\ of iridescent yellow.\ Water to the desert deep in our soul,\ mighty whisper to our doubt.
Together, every hand is outreached.\ Each heavy head never falls\ without a shoulder to lean on.\ Our collective heart beats “you are seen”,\ our gaze is on the unveiled good.
In the 19th century, years before women had the right to vote - or do much else for that matter, philosopher and poet Matthew Arnold spoke in recognition and reverence of the power of united women:
“If there ever comes a time when the women of the world come together purely and simply for the benefit of mankind, it will be a force such as the world has never known.”
Some days, this vision feels right at our fingertips. On others, it slips through our lonely hands like water. We all know the corrosive bite of being compared to other women - whether done by ourselves or society. It grows a divide between us from fear, insecurity, or simply the premature conclusion that we are too different to understand each other.
It intimidates us into desperately clutching onto our gifts, rather than sharing them where they can collaboratively flourish.
But, I hope you have also known the head-to-toe sigh of receiving an earnest “me too”. Or even better, experienced the empathy that can’t understand, but listens wholeheartedly anyway. Of marching side by side, and intently slowing enough to notice the distinct glimmer behind each other’s eyes.
Our complexities were not designed for division, but completion.
This justice we crave, the wholeness we desire, it takes full form only when we are unified. We must actively choose to break down barriers not just for our own inner freedom, but for the good of the world . Because when our focus is freed from ourselves, we can change everything for someone else.
This month, we are here to Come Together . To humanize those that seem far from us. To lean in and listen to opinions we disagree with. To discover the groundbreaking, far fetched visions that come to fruition when we work as one. I encourage you to turn off your tunnel vision. Speak to the strangers you pass on the street. Open your imagination to the possibilities to come when we, in all our diversity, put each other first.
Photos by: Cacá Santoro