Speaking Our Truth

"Once we give up searching for approval, we often find it easier to earn respect."
-Gloria Steinem

This morning I woke early and looked out to see Mt Hood in its morning splendor, the rosy early light touching it's white snowy peak. I was grateful. I rose and grabbed my coffee and had a walk to warm myself in the early sunlight and motivate Sweetpea. 

It is a ritual, everyone has them. I go from that one to prayer and reading and then, I either get ready for work or, like today, I wonder and review my thoughts and beliefs about my life. 

Am I being true to myself? Am I being fair and loving to others? Am I forgiving? Am I allowing God's guidance to work through me? Am I in truth in all areas of my life? Am I allowing the light of God to quiet my mind and soul so that I may serve?

Lately, I have heard people say, "did you really say that?" about when I am speaking my truth, how I am feeling. At first I felt this as criticism, but on further examination I let that feeling go and asked myself the same question. Did I really say that? And I did, I said it from the truth in me without condemnation or anger or resentment. I just spoke my truth. And here is why.

If I am not speaking my truth, my experience, I am not being true to myself. I have some experience in this,yes. 

I think back to the times in my life that speaking the truth was so dangerous and fear-filled that I became less. I shrank "so that others would't feel insecure around me"-MW. For years, I downplayed my abilities as a seer as a healer as a woman with a brain. I spoke half-truths, I felt shame, resentment, anger beyond belief towards that which I did not understand. It turned my guts to mush.

 As a blossoming teen, I ripped out pockets of my dresses under the dinner table, to keep myself from screaming because I was being told what I had to say did not matter. Later on there were other vices to suppress the desire to speak my truth. Or to aid in developing the courage to speak it. I started searching for the truth in college, I wandered into nature for hours, I read psychology books, spiritual books such as "Be Here Now", barely understanding it, I joined groups, I traveled. I was searching for the truth. 

Today, I know my truth. As a human and as a woman-a Goddess, the Wise Woman that I am. I know that behavior does not define us. What we do is not who we are, I said this for years when someone would ask me, "what do you do?'. I would respond, " I work as a nurse, but it is not who I am, I am many things". Today I am true to myself.

I speak as I see it and it may not be your reality, but, it will be honest and truthful. I join the many women who are today, speaking their truth, standing for what they know to be right, for their children, for the world. And I honor them. They have honored us by their strength.

Mary Magdalene,  Joan of Arc, Queen Isabella of Spain, Queen Elizabeth I, Pocahontas, Catherine the Great, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B Anthony, Clara Barton, Marie Currie, Helen Keller, Eleanor Roosevelt, Georgia O'Keeffe, AmeliaEarhart, Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks,Babe Zaharias, Anne Frank, Jane Goodall, Gloria Steinem, Oprah, Madeline Albright, Hillary Clinton, Malala Yousafzai. All these women have and continue to work toward equality and peace. They stand in their truth against a world at war. Look them up, see how this world has been changed for the better by their truths.

 Stand in your truth. You will not be alone.