A circle of women can be a powerful thing. It can bring support, understanding and a feeling of being heard. But how often do you let yourself be vulnerable enough to experience this? How often do you go into a group of women and perceive judgement, cast judgement, compare and create stories about these other women and surely what it is they must be thinking about you? How often do you make a decision on a woman, based on her size, how she dresses or speaks?
What we often do, is what we fear the most, judge. And this judgement creates space and distance rather than a sense of community and sisterhood. I have seen and felt judgement by other women and if I’m being completely honest, have judged other women. But when I sit and look at why it is that I judge them, it is often that they are reflecting something back in me, that I see in myself. Somethings I like, somethings I don’t. This is often the hardest thing to face. We all mirror back something with in one another, its just being open to seeing each in that way.
And then we have good ol’ society. Society breeds this sense of judgement. Just look at how much the diet industry has made. A whopping, $60 billion dollars in encouraging you to examine every inch of your body and look to see where it is you can “improve upon.” You’re never enough. And if you live in a larger body, forget it. The judgement that is casted on your body, is that your body is wrong and not acceptable.
It is time that we change this! It is time that we resist the societal pressure to fit in and push the limits of our body, to be what is deemed acceptable. It is time we look past one another’s size, labels and grammar. It is time that we see one another, as we are. These true lights of powerful femininity, that glow so much brighter, when we unite together. This goes beyond your tribe of women. Beyond the women that you call mother, sister, daughter or friend. It goes to the woman who sits at the cubicle five down from you, that you never talk to. It goes to the woman who bagged your groceries this weekend or took your dinner order. It goes to the woman you see juggling her job, kids and partner. It goes to the mom at school that is always late to carpool or has to miss her child’s play because of her job. It goes to the women that it is easy to cast that judgement on.
When we unite. When we come together. We form a bond greater than anyone could imagine. We form a true sisterhood that only we, as women can create. We honor each other for what our bodies can do, what we can juggle and manage, what we can endure, go through and survive. Some of us coming out stronger, some us needing another to lean on.
When you allow yourself to be embraced in a circle of women, you feel the weave of invisible nets of love that carry you through when you are weak and sing with you when you are strong. Every woman is a woman that can be apart of that circle. Know that the light inside of her, is reflecting the light inside of you. And what a beautiful thing it is, when you shine, together.
