THE WOMAN'S POWER TO LET LIVE AND LET DIE

It’s always great for me to speak with young ladies regarding self-image issues. Last night, I had the pleasure to lead a workshop titled If Only You Knew…My Cry in Dark. The ladies were all so wonderful, smart, brave, and funny. We shared the good things that we celebrate in ourselves and bad feelings that we battle with more often than we should. One thing we kept coming back to in conversation is how to let some of the bad things within us and around us die.

I can only give wisdom and conduct talks/ workshops such as these by receiving inspiration from other sources. It may be a conversation with a mentor or family member. It may be a random conversation with a stranger. Maybe it’s a documentary, a song, or a book. I keep my ears and eyes open at all times.

For this particular workshop, I shared an excerpt from a book called Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, PhD. There was a particular section where she speaks about stories of women throughout history who have used their inner power to attempt to resuscitate love ones from the dead. Then she says this:

“This is our meditation practice as women, calling back the dead and dismembered aspects of life itself…The Creator Mother is always also the Death Mother and vice versa. Because of this dual nature, or double tasking, the great work before us is to learn to understand what around us and about us and what within us must live, and what must die. Our work is to apprehend the timing of both; to allow what must die to die and what must live to live.”

We [women] are not only the givers of life; we also have the power to let things die. Let that bad relationship die. Let that bad habit die. Let that guilt die. Let that feeling of not being good enough die.

And while we are letting the bad go, resuscitate those great qualities, talents, dreams and hopes that are within us. Life is far too great to hold on to hurtful and horrible burdens. Take on our main quote of last night's discussion: “Let that thang die!”