Sisterhood

According to Merriam Webster's Dictionary, the word sisterhood is defined as a close relationship among women based on shared experiences, concerns, etc. ; a community or society of women ; especially: a community of nuns. It seems Mr. Webster did not have the pleasure of meeting the phenomenal women I have met along my path. In fact, I would say Mr. Webster must have lived a very banal life indeed if he were no better inspired to define such a powerful word in such limiting terms.

Sisterhood isn't just limited to the external factors of human experience. Oh no, it is much more profound than that. Sisterhood began when the first woman walked out of the Earth and stared back into the face of her fellow woman. When they stood in the forests and howled at the moon. When the first woman gave birth surrounded by her fellow women.

These primal sisters honored this connection, this sacred ability to give birth, to create life. They expanded. They became aware and awakened. They flourished. They made art and created works so profound there were no words.

Sisterhood is simple. It's primal and untamed. It's love. It's respect. It's dignity. Empathy. Awe at the sight of one sister's face reflected in the eyes of another. Can such a powerful connection ever be limited to a few words? I don't think so. I don't think Mr. Webster meant any disrespect. I think he simply never understood what a powerful word he was defining.

Two-hundred and eight years after the first Webster's dictionary was published, the word is once again being uttered on the lips of women across the globe. Women are becoming aware. We are awakening. We are removing the labels. The limitations. We are becoming powerful. We are once again becoming that wild thing that stares into the Moon with wonder and yearns to howl.

As I said, I have met phenomenal women. I have been inspired, enthralled, and amazed by their brilliance. Although I don't see them every day, I may not even chat with them every day, their light is there. Artists, mothers, dancers, teasers, and twirlers of the sacred flames. They have the power to capture images in a flash, to interpret sounds into the most amazing vibration, to bring alive and fan the rays of Awen. I am in love with their endless compassion, their unique abilities, their endless vulnerability as they day after day share their inner light with the world.

But sisterhood is more than just sharing our gifts. It is also sharing our burdens, our pain, our flaws. And this is where the word shines, where it is the most brilliant, the most powerful. And so are we.

You see, when your sister is hurt you feel it. It buries in the base of your soul and pushes through to the core of your being. You feel it in every fiber. When our sisters fall, we pick them up. We empower them. We make them strong again. We heal. Anyone can be a sister when things are easy and life is bright, but when things fall apart and that light is dim it doesn't only dim one light. It dims all of our lights. So we ignite the fire again. We continue the cycle of destroying what holds us in place and creating a new flow, a new cosmos, where our evolution and awakening continues and flourishes.

Sisterhood is the creative force we carry to create our own universe, our own sacred self, and the power to bring others who have dimmed back into their orbits. This is sisterhood. This is our legacy.

Mr. Webster really didn't get it, but we do. When I call my fellow woman Sister, I mean it. In her face I see my own.

May my Sisters' lights never dim.

Namaste ~