Happy international Women's Month 2020

The first day of March. Happy International Women's Month. I woke to this thought. Such a strange dilemma. How ironic that the word ‘happy’ is part of all this work we have to do to create basic safety and respect for women. But the happiness is there because we get to celebrate how strong we are now, together. So today, Day 1, I spent the day on World Pulse, one of my very favourite kinds of days. Being in touch with so many of you. Like the new message from our beloved Team: Every day is International Women’s Day on World Pulse. 

As each year goes by I am enraged at how much time this is taking, hearing the same old excuses we have been given for generations, at the resistance we are up against, at the treatment that we are given when we speak out for women and girls, and at the levels of violence against women and girls that seems to not only be continuing, but finding new ways, new excuses, new forms. I wake each morning to the pain of all of my sisters globally, who have just been raped, or beaten, or tortured, or killed, reported or not reported in the news, men excused by the courts, our voices seen as exaggerated by men not wanting to face this, secretly depending on change not happening, secretly wanting to keep the privilege of being male.

I have learned to live with this, as so many of us have, this awareness of my sisters young and old treated so brutally to the point of losing their lives, living with brutal memories, or living enslaved. And so I have learned how to stay strong, how to speak out no matter what, and to realize that I am on this earth at this time to change this.

I woke this morning also aware that we all woke with this purpose, we 70,000 waking to our Month, a month that has become ours to take the stage, to hold groups, to be at information tables, to be in the streets, carry banners with messages that we will not be silent about this, and that we are now together globally with a strength never seen or experienced before on the planet, since those years that this patriarchy took hold. And that we know that it has not always been this way, that we know that women leaders are, and in many places have always been respected, that we know it was different before about 1100 AD, not so long ago, and that we know it is our ideas, our love, our compassion our perspectives as the strong leaders we are, that is the medicine needed to heal this. I woke this morning knowing that we are rising together to end violence in every form, against us, against everyone, against the animals, against the earth, and that we know that the subjugation of women has been the focus of this destruction. This could have been changed in a generation. I have witnessed the resistance over a few generations now. Empty promises, empty excuses. Politicians shaking hands behind closed doors agreeing not to rock the patriarchal boat locally, nationally and at the UN.

So here we go, another International Women’s Month. The accumulation of another year of violence we have witnessed, felt and absorbed, but also with another year of this never before number of women standing strong, speaking out and forming connections with each other. We are finally moving forward with no apologies for this work we are here to do. This is no time for explaining or apologizing for the tone of our voices, nor for the drastic change we are after. If we are to heal this earth and bring peace to all of its people we must first stop all forms of violence toward women and girls. The world and everyone in it needs us to rise. And the first step is to make sure the women and girls are safe and free.

This month I will work to reach news broadcasters to bring forward the news World Pulse sisters need known. I will meet with women, march in the street of our nation’s capital, have an info table with World Pulse sisters showing what we have globally now, what is possible when we work together with the courage and love that we share. I will watch as always for the look on women’s faces as they discover World Pulse and realize that they can be part of this. My heart could be broken for all that I know, but instead it is full of joy to call out Happy International Women’s Day to all of you, my beautiful, powerful, dedicated and courageous World Pulse Community.