Let’s go on a little audio-visual, interactive journey together…

It’s okay if this hurts a little, or maybe more than a little. Stay with your emotions, let your emotions (pain, anger, sadness, grief) move into flow. Let your feelings flow, let your breath flow, let your tears flow.

STAY with me. Lean in. This will be good, I promise. I will lead you in and then out the other side to a better place.

So start here. With the most compelling call to listen to your gut, your own deep intuition/wisdom – no matter what pressures come to squeeze, mold, or frighten you – that I have ever seen:

Can you believe a video this compelling, this crucial, this important to the awakening of the oppression Americans live under, has had less than 5,000 views in the two years since it’s release?

And now, as your heart is aching, as you rail against the horror, the fear, the anguish… watch this brilliant adaptation of Maya Angelou’s famous poem, Still I Rise:

Each of us, in our tiny corner of the world, has a place, or series of little places, where we can rise. If you are a man, then this video poem is a clarion call to your feminine. We have ALL allowed the masculine to run riot over this earth, without balancing it with the power and wisdom of our feminine.

  • Standing Rock
  • The drugging of America
  • Traditional schooling
  • Mono-culture crops
  • Vaccination
  • Black lives matter
  • Factory Farming – animal abuse

These are all areas where the feminine – of men and women – needs to rise. If each of these areas was informed, led, and policies/laws set by the soul-space of the nurturing feminine… imagine how our world would be.

For me, right now TODAY, here is an opportunity to allow my feminine to rise: We have a new pipeline our federal government has just approved – that will run alongside an existing oil pipeline – for the purpose of transporting tar sands bitumen from Alberta, down onto ships in Vancouver.

When the tankers spill the bitumen (which they WILL as history has proved; 14 oil spills per year) into our oceans, “…the heavy bitumen sinks to the bottom, so conventional clean-up techniques had little effect. At the same time, the chemical dilutents such as benzene evaporate and cause toxic clouds in the air.” As we saw from the Enbridge spill in 2010, the effects on wildlife and ocean life are devastating.

So I will be joining our local Kwantlen Indian band for their planning meeting next week as to what to do to prevent Kinder Morgan from trespassing on First Nations land. I figure, the more of us we can get mobilized at an earlier date, the less chance we have of escalating to a Canadian version of Standing Rock.

I think what many people don’t understand is that our elected politicians need our help to be able to stand against big money operators. We think our Prime Minister or our President has power, when in reality… not so much. So the politician needs to be able to point to the massive civilian protest and say, “I’m sorry, but look…. what can I do? The people won’t allow this. We can’t go ahead or we’ll have civil war. It’s not me, I have happily bowed to your pressure/threats. But this shit show is just getting bigger. So sorry.” And only then does the Prez have “permission” to say NO to big biz.

When we allow our feminine to rise, we don’t need to do big, powerful, massive things – requiring huge amounts of time and energy. We can just make our little contribution in our little corner of the world. And trust the emanations that will ripple out from there.

My challenge to myself at the Kwantlen band meeting is to NOT get all angry, let’s-smash-them upset. Which, yeah, is kind of my default. But to stay consciously in the awareness and holding-space for my feminine to rise and speak to me of a holistic, peace-carrying path. Remember Gandhi? Which other nation removed the colonial devastation and tentacles which had infiltrated every branch and sector of society, better than Gandhi’s non-violence movement in India?

We think going to war, fighting, and angry protesting (masculine) is the most powerful expression of NO. But really, that is the equivalent of a giant rock – smashing and pulverizing everything.

And what is more powerful than even the biggest, hardest, toughest rock? Water. Flowing, path of no-resistance, water (feminine). Everything can initially cut, smash or pound through water, because water resists nothing. But by it’s very nature of non-resistance and flow, it is the most powerful force on the planet. A tiny trickle can wear through the hardest rock – it just takes time. Masses of water molecules gathered together and moving in flow can form a tsunami that can wipe out any army, weapon, structure in existence. And then melt back into stillness and gentle ebb and flow.

This is our challenge – for all men and women at this crucial juncture of our oh-so-crowded planet, where our horde of ant-humans is rapidly gnawing through every resource on and in Mother Earth – to stay in our feminine. Allow our feminine to rise, express, speak, act.

And then figure out how to merge and integrate our feminine and masculine together! Just a small challenge for you this week…
 
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Today I Rise

Where are you?
Little girl with broken wings but full of hope
Where are you?
Wise woman covered in wounds

Where are you?
Where are you?
Where are you?

Today is the day I will not sit still and give in anymore
Today, I rise

I am bruised, but I will get up and walk again
Today, I rise

I don’t care if you ignore my beauty
Today, I rise

Through the agony of my darkest nights I heal and thrive
Today, I rise

I move through the world with confidence and grace
I open my eyes and I am ready to face
My wholeness as a woman and my limitless capacities
I will walk my path with audacity
Today, I rise

I reconnect with the many aspects of myself
I’m in awe of the reality I can breed

I am a queen
I am a healer
A wise woman
A wild woman
I will rise and be

I am a rebel I will wake up and fight
I am a mother
And… I am a child

I will no longer disguise my sadness and pain
I will no longer suffer and complain

I am black and I am white
There’s no reason to hide

Where are you?
Where are you?
Where are you?
Where are you?

I call upon Kālī to give me life
I transform my anger into power
No more heartache or strife

The world is missing what I am ready to give
My wisdom
My sweetness
My love
And my hunger for peace

I weep with the trees and the rivers and the earth in distress
I rise and shine and I’m ready to go on my quest

Today, I rise without doubt or hesitation
Today, I rise without excuses, without procrastination
Today, I call upon my sisters to join a movement of resolution and concern
Today is my call to action
I will fulfill my mission without further distraction

Today is the day
Today, I will start
To offer the world the wisdom of my heart’

Words quoted from the short film ‘Today, I Rise’ by Alexandra Feldner

*Thanks to The Pagan Poet for the transcription!

And a big thank-you to Kelly Brogan MD for the video inspiration for this post.