Sande Hart

Since the beginning of our modern story, women have been in some form of struggle or another. Not only for injustices against women and women's rights, but also against nature, those we love, our community, and the world. While women, like nature, have been disproportionately impacted by every system for thousands of years, women are wired with gossamer threads to all living things and we carry their sorrows as our own, consciously or not. No wonder so many women are expressing despair that seems to get darker everyday.
Yet that darkness is a gift. It's showing us who we are. It's the tension that compresses creativity into something new and necessary. It's time to embrace the darkness. Know that here is where new life springs forth. Know that seeds of potential greatness need to germinate in darkness. Know that in the darkness we can truly be with our truth without distraction. Know the darkness is good medicine. The darkness is also where we rest and refuel.
Since the day it was announced that our current President of the United States was elected for another term (an unfathomable reality to possibly more than half of the United States) the reaction bears no resemblance to his election in 2016. Then there was an indignant, "Oh Hell No!" response and pink pussy caps and rebellious handmade signs hit the streets. Women and men alike were outraged, and we showed it. More women's organizations were developed and/or reinvigorated, and programs and toolkits were birthed out of the tension.
But unlike the rebel yell of 2016, this time there is an exhaustion and a quiet cry of disbelief. For good reason. It's been a constant litany of assaults on our senses for 8 years. However, could it also be that we are realizing that this time requires us (women in particular) to go into dark? The conflict between our nature to respond to suffering and injustice, and the self-preservation necessary for anyone during these times is confusing. Maybe that's because it's time to unravel the old myths of who we have been and what has been normalized.
Confusing is good. It means things today do not make sense, and they shouldn't!
Perhaps what we have stepped right over on all our marches, programs, campaigns, and other means to "fight back" was the simple recognition that we might be recirculating the same old story of the myth of who we are ourselves. This is where that darkness comes in handy. While we may not know what to "do," we do have full agency right now to know what to "be."
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