NEVERTHELESS SHE PERSISTED

SHE WAS WARNED, AN EXPLANATION WAS GIVEN...... 

NEVERTHELESS SHE PERSISTED

So said the US Senator, Mitch McConnell of Senator Elizabeth Warren who was intent on reading out a letter written in 1986 by Coretta Scott King....
This link takes you to Scottish Singer/ Songwriter Karine Polwart and a deeply thoughtful interview:

http://positivelyscottish.scot/2017/02/07/positive-profile-karine-polwart-on-music-walking-and-coping-with-anxiety/ 

 Another woman 'nevertheless persisting'...

There are times I find myself appalled, hurting and angry at the pain we seem intent on inflicting on so many. It seems that history has shown us time and again our capacity for this. 

And history has also shown us the 

'greater, extraordinary compassionate' humanity, nevertheless persisting. 

In the conversations with and about Women of Wit, Wisdom & Wonder, it is in the actions and being of individuals that I find awe  and wonder. The seeds, the shafts of light that grow, build, expand to reveal our better selves, that move us beyond what we dreamt was possible.

I listen to my recording of Mma Nobuntu in a South African Township. She took children off the street into her sitting room when their mothers had to work. That was, unknown to her at the time, seeding, by the time some years later when we met, a whole compound. A space that became:

• A safe house for raped and abused women
• A full time nursery, teaching and caring for the smallest children, many living there, arriving traumatised, starving, terrified
• Training for women so they can be economically independent
• And much more - including raising every coin to make this happen

In Mma's words 

'You must do the things you think you can't do'

I'm reminded of Margaret Anstee who in a way turned the persisting on its head - as a young woman persistently refusing to learn to type... Her Memoir, 'Never Learn To Type' (2003), is a wonderful exposition of the life of the first woman to become an Under Secretary General at the UN. Born in 1926 she died last August and was a fascinating raconteur of a life well and persistently lived. Her seed, her 'shaft of light' she said in our conversation, was her grandmother - whose energy saw her through loosing her career when she married (the norm in those days), divorce, danger, gender prejudice and much more. 

'Nevertheless persisting'

THOUGHTS & THEMES

Who would create the new must endure the passing of the old in full tranquillity

(Rudolf Steiner - Source unknown)

I was sent this quote today and it stirred a reaction - how can tranquillity be relevant right now?

And then it struck me - so many of the women I met in these Women of Wit, Wisdom & Wonder conversations had a deep tranquillity in them despite the most extraordinary of circumstances including:

• bereavement
• rape
• exile
• being sex trafficked 
• working with Doctors who developed PTSD after working in war zones
• financial loss
• being shot 
• homelessness

So now I'm really curious about tranquillity as an active experience...

Tranquility in ancient and wildness 

Callanish Stones, Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides

WHAT PRICE DESPAIR?

TODAY I've found myself in the land of despair. I don't like it. I wriggle, resist, cry and stamp like a two-year old.

Until, worn out I discover despair takes me inside and I find again the slowly budding contribution, the one I can wholeheartedly make - the writing and sharing of the glorious gifts women's lives bring the world. The inspirational women with whom I've been in conversation these last years. Those women who've told me of the women who have inspired them, kept them going, challenged them, impacted their lives....

One such was a Gugu, a granny (a minute, laughing soul) in 2009, in Kaylisha, a Township in Cape Town, South Africa - who spoke of 'getting my life back' when in 1966 she stood in front of a Saracen tank and refused to move. Before, she said, she had 'been in despair'. Afterwards 'I was alive'.  'And now, even better, I'm free, I can go where I will'.... 'There was a future, there's always a future'.

With thanks to the Poet, David Whyte:
"Despair is a necessary and seasonal state of repair, a temporary healing absence, an internal physiological and psychological winter". (Consolations - The solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words, David Whyte, Many Rivers Press 2015).

Spring silently slips into the world, slowly the seasons change - they can't be skipped 😄

Women of Wit Wisdom & Wonder: Women Who Inspire

Is a passion of my heart.  Celebrating the amazing women I’ve been in conversation with, I am inviting and inciting people to hear, honour and celebrate the lives of women. And to look at how we will inspire the next generations of women. I am speaking, writing and working creatively with groups, large and small (again all over the world) – a book is ‘in the writing’….

Inspired by my ancestors, my grandmothers, and Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison this work is growing – who knows where it will take me next.

Last Saturday (21 January 2017), along with millions of women world wide I joined the Women’s March, my ground was London. What a day – there we had over 100,000 wonderful people. Diversity was there in all dimensions, many marching on behalf of those who weren't able. Huge humour in the placards and grounded, inspiring speeches energised and connected us all.

Women of Wit, Wisdom and Wonder’s Blog is so timely… Posts will be coming as the conversation/ writing fits. Join this conversation of inspiration and celebration. It’s sorely needed.

The image - road crossing sign at the side of Trafalgar Square, London last Saturday. Someone somewhere had a stroke of genius idea, and acted.