Now is The Time

Women. International Women's Day. Women's History Month. It's all about the women in March. Have you noticed? I get all excited at the prospect of women gathering to honor their lineage, their history, families, mentors, neighbors, co-workers, leaders, friends, global sisters, and themselves. On March 4th, I honored International Women's Day, by enjoying dinner with my mother followed by Half the Sky Live. This film highlighted stories from the book Half the Sky, which is all about global women's oppression turned to opportunity, written by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn. We were also shown a draft of Marissa Tomei's short film, Woienshet. This is a powerful, heartbreaking and uplifting story of an Ethiopian girl kidnapped to be a child bride. And the line she tows, with the partnership of her father, to overcome, educate and create change, had me breathless and bawling.

Prior to my trip to India, I had watched more documentaries on trafficking and sex slavery, than one might consider healthy. Yes, I'd turned friends away (with wine!) on warm summer nights, after the kids were sound asleep, claiming to be lost in film after film. I needed to hear each story, knowing it would be only months until I was there, holding the hands and the hearts of the survivors myself. And I'd read enough books, to give myself a confident foundation for my first hand experiences. And it was all slightly obsessive, but you see, that's how I roll. So it was to my surprise that this time, during this thirty minute, not quite polished film, something was different. Something in me had shifted. Woienshet, was the first film of this nature, that I'd seen since returning from Kolkata less than one month ago. And while it takes place in Ethiopia, and the landscape, the people, the culture all varied from the exact setting I experienced, there were just too many similarities to the girls and young women I had met in India. It felt heavy to watch the story unfold. The horror, the humiliation, and the bone chilling reality, that many of the beautiful souls I now know personally, have walked in Woienshet's shoes. It hurt deeper. The kind of hurt when you want to scream, “Stop! No! You don't deserve this! I am here to save you.” The kind of hurt that is present when you know the victim. The kind of hurt that stings your heart beyond it's safe keeping.

Lucky for me, in these moments of sadness and reflection, I happen to be in the presence of my own personal hero. The one woman I lean on for strength, and always have. Yes, it was my deliberate choice to invite my mother to watch this film with me. But not because she's a modern day abolishionist herself (just yet), not because she paid for the movie ticket (bonus!), not because we do these types of human rights dates all time (I wish!), and certainly not because I knew she'd have nothing better to do (not in the DNA). Precisely because she's the kind of person that knew to buy me the right shoes and new socks when I traveled across the world. Because she asks the right questions, listens actively, or says nothing at all to truly “get it”. Because she sat with me in the car after the film and listened to me process for one hour, at 10:30pm on a Thursday night, before we parted ways. Because sometime ago, before human rights, global oneness, or women's suffering were in my vocabulary, she battled for the girls in our town to get equal athletic uniforms, playing fields, and sports equipment. She showed me about the value of education, and how that sacrifice brings the greatest freedom. She exemplified hard work and unconditional love in the daily plow. She is the one that planted the seed. I am the one who will grow it.

And so, on this International Women's Day, this Women's History Month, I embrace this gift of womanhood. I honor the women across the world – the ones I know, the ones I will never meet. I honor the women before me, around me, inside me, after me. But most of all, I honor the woman that gave me life. And continues to sustain it. I beg you to thank, to hug, to chat, to share, to be with your women this month. Connecting to our past, connects us to our future, invites us to be women of the world, right now.  With gratitude and hope, joy and suffering, strength and courage, now is the time to be alive with womanhood.  Go on my friends, dig into those roots, reach out with those branches, grow towards the sky. For now, now, now is the time. 

Namaste,
Janell