I Am All Women Everywhere

It has been a whole month since I have blogged here. I just returned from a networking event and had a very interesting discussion about women, women's power, and what women really have in common. My friend said that she wrote this poem one evening called, "I Am all Women Everywhere." This made me think about what really brings women together.

In my other blog, www.yonispeak.blogspot.com I generally tend to write about these types of topics. But tonight I feel that since sisterhood is the topic, understanding what really brings all women together, that is our biology, is really important. Yes, the fact that we have a yoni, womb, vagina, can bleed and give birth, have breasts that produce milk, etc. is what unites us as women and not what tears us apart.

In this world of youth and beauty it is hard to see our commonalities in a positive light. Most women and young girls are taught at an early age to compare themselves to other girls or women their age, to be critical about their body and to feel competitive with other women or girls. This is an unfortunate by product of living in a culture where women's bodies are commodities to be admired and yes sold to the highest bidder, or the cutest guy or the most glamourous job.

True sisterhood goes beyond what meets the eye. Our bodies should unite us, bring us closer together as they once did in days when we sat together in the Red Tent to menstruate and held council as wise women rather than tear us apart. In those times our bodies brought us closer together because we menstruated at the same time and because our bodies were attuned to the cycles of the moon. Many women gave birth within a few days of each other and yes many women had their first rites together. In these cultures women's bodies bonded them together and supported their connection as sisters.

So what has happened to create so much separation and mistrust between women? Why have our bodies become the weapon that keeps us apart rather than the very thing that can that brings us back to each other? The old adage divide and conquor was not lost upon women. To regain our trust and to reconnect once again with the deepest part of ourselves as women we need to remember the lifetimes when we sat together, prayed together and wept together, united because we had the same bodies. That is our fundamental connection that can never be denied. It is because of this that our sisters stories could be your stories, her troubles your troubles, her loves your loves her challenges your challenges, her fears your fears.

I ask you as my sister, my temple sister to sit with me as you read these words and feel my spirit as your spirit, feel our connection even though I do not know your name. I am a woman and my body is your body, there is no distinction between race, color, height, size or shape that will ever truly separate us, for our sex unites us in ways that only a woman could know, I am you and you are me, I am all women everwhere.