Sisterhood by Maria Greene
Today, as we are inaugurating our second, monthly SHINE Sister’s Circle, I have been reminiscing about where it all began…
For the past three years I have not only witnessed an ongoing miracle but I have also been a recipient of the seemingly infinite bounty it brings. It began quite simply with a dream, some inspiring words and a small group of women who were hungry for something more even though they couldn’t tell you what.
Eight of us sat in my living room on a chilly February evening not knowing what to expect but expectant none-the-less. It appeared we were all there for different reasons and yet we found ourselves (and the answers to our questions) in one another. A common vessel of mutual support, understanding, creativity, love and courage seamlessly cradled us. And while we ate each other’s food, listened to one another’s stories, held space for one another’s dreams and celebrated each other’s unique feminine expression, magic happened.
Through our collective SHINE and our desire to live it out loud, Safe Sisterhood was effortlessly born and the circles became our sacred, monthly sounding board, creative haven and launch pad. It was instinctive, organic, easy, intuitive, graceful, fearless (well almost), comfortable, natural, unforced. It was time. Time for us as women to be real, to be true, to be open, to be heard knowing it was unconditionally safe to show up and try ourselves on.
It was time for us to come together and be one another’s wing-women. It was time to write a new chapter in women’s history– letting go of the old myths that women are inherently jealous, bitchy, mean, unpredictable, catty and unforgiving to other women. Each of us had felt that sting in our lives and while wary, something bigger was operating within that drew us to one another. Because we are women, our hearts knew the truth of what it really means to be female and that those derogative labels just don’t apply to our true essence. It doesn’t mean we can’t be that way, but the truth is, that just isn’t our natural way of being.
At our core, women are collaborators and creators not destroyers and dividers. It was time for us to help one another bloom out of the wounds we had suffered through these labels (among many others) by leading one another with love to the wellspring of inner strength and courage that is the feminine. Without control, manipulation or judgment, we instinctively have become powerful role models for one another.
And, in the process, we have healed previous negative images and beliefs about ourselves. We have taught and continue to encourage one another to fly. For me, it has been like watching a garden bloom captured through the lens of slow motion photography. What a privilege to witness each woman flower into her full glory, to find her expressed feminine, to SHINE! What a privilege to participate and have them be wing-women for me, for my own SHINE. What a privilege to welcome new women to the circle and see them so lovingly cared for and lifted up by their sisters.
It would appear that the universe applauds women’s SHINE and their coming home to themselves through Safe Sisterhood as this short article appeared in my inbox this morning. Appropriately, it is called: Women’s Support – Becoming Our Own Role Models and comes from the Daily OM which I highly recommend if you aren’t already familiar with it.
Please enjoy the article and let us know here about your experiences with Safe Sisterhood and of course if you’ve never been to one of our SHINE Sisters’ Circles…the door is open and we’re waiting for you. Oh, and by the way, if you like the artwork at the top by Maria Greene, you can check her out at the Roots of She blog by Jenn Gibson which is terrific…she’s a safe sister!