The World will try to contain us.
They will assign words to our fluid beings.
Our story – if we women let them, will be defined in extremes.
That we are: too much, or too little too fat, or too thin too bossy, or too submissive too dumb, or too smart for our own good.
But you – my daughter, my sisters, my friends – you hold within you the power of the seasons. Your spirit is large enough to hold each one.
Just as the sun is not too bright, or the ocean too deep, nor is sister moon too soft with her silver light.
For it is She that causes this earth to spin. She sends those tides to extend and retract from the shore. The crops to rise, the fruit to fall It is her full embodiment of self that allows her quiet dominion over us all.
So too, it is never your fault to be fully who you are.
We need not look to others to define, defend, or to shape us into their liking.
We need not pretend.
You are allowed to come in like thunder, to whisper softly as the breeze.
To change your mind.
Shed yourselves of the leaves that no longer bear your markings, Step out of the golden husks at your feet –
Stand. Ready to bloom again.
We women belong to contradiction.
Our bodies start at the curve of our thighs Winding its way along our thin spin Before it falls curled into our tiny smiles.
We are living question marks.
Don’t let anyone outside of your skin tell you what its worth to be alive within it.
For this world is forever wide. But we women – when we stretch out our arms, Chests thrown back and hearts exposed can circle it.
Care for it with an innate wisdom that allows us to grow life within our darkness.
Nurturing ourselves, and always each other with a love that is womb deep.
We are infinite. We are finite.
Flawed and divine.
Woven together by dust and stars.
We need no standards. No extremes. We need no definition.
We are – Women.
I wrote this piece for a Women Shine event in 2014 honoring the women in the arts at the Mile of Music music festival and have felt the surgance and urgency of these words rise within us again.
Listen in to 91.1 The Avenue today at 11:00am cst + Sunday 8:00pm cst to listen to more voices surrounding womanhood on the Storycatchers segment of Soul of the Cities.
xo,
Tara Pohlkotte
