Emerge Now
Emerge now,
Woman of wonder!
Emerge now,
Rise up and sing!
Emerge now,
Woman unfolding.
Take your place in the family of things.
Take your place in the family of things.
Words and music by Trish Bruxvoort Colligan
©2006, RainDancerMusic; Used by permission.
www.spirations.com breathingspaces@msn.com
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Isn’t Mary Oliver grand? Feast your eyes on her poem Wild Geese from her book Dream Work:
Wild Geese
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
--Mary Oliver
Lately, I’ve been having conversations with women who say they feel like they’re in hiding. They’re going about their normal business – their everyday work, school, family, dog-walking, spaghetti-making, diaper-changing, magazine-reading lives. And there’s a quiet discontent rumbling somewhere below the surface. Nothing’s really wrong, it’s just not quite right. The rumble starts in the library when a book title catches the eye. It makes itself known in the “dressing-for-the-office” black-suit attire. It blows its horn when the beckoning kayaks, hiking shoes, and easels are ignored. It whispers from night-time dreams and doesn’t fade away with the mists of dawn. It’s an elusive little bugger that can’t be trained, tamed, or shut up. It just keeps coming.
As a woman who’s had her fair share of in-hiding moments, I wonder: What’s that quiet discontent about? Why not give it a chance to speak its voice? What’s the worst that can happen?
Well, a lot, actually. Our lives can get turned upside down when we listen to that inner rumble. Relationships shift. Jobs can change. Old stories asking for resolution may knock again. And maybe, just maybe, a glimpse of the Real Inside Woman can be seen. (Gasp!) And maybe, just maybe, it turns out to be something glorious.
While we’re on the subject of glory, I’m also talking with lots of women who are already living Way Out There in their dreams. Women who’ve taken incredible risks to birth themselves into the world. Women who’ve gasped out loud at that first glimpse of their own beauty. Women who’ve inspired me to come out a little bit more in my own life.
Case in point:
Let me introduce you to Betsy – wise wonder woman, fiber artist, wife, mother, and creator of Sacred Sharing Circles and www.MyWomb.net. (Go ahead, visit her online. You know you want to, and I promise to wait right here… Good. Let’s continue.) Last spring (May 2005), Betsy invited me into the process of creating and facilitating a blessing circle for her new business, Sacred Sharing Circles, a heart-full enterprise that celebrates women and women’s stories.
From Betsy’s website: “The idea for Sacred Sharing Circles sprang from Betsy’s emerging spirituality, and the need for her to celebrate her own life transitions. Betsy participated in women’s spiritual gatherings for many years, before reaching the exciting point in her life where she wanted to share her gifts with others.
“‘Sacred Sharing Circles grew out of my passion for women’s spirituality, and has expanded to include all of the rites of passage in women’s lives: pregnancy, birth, loss, healing after birth, coming of age, emerging, and peri-menopause. I see a real need to offer these services to my community.’”
Inspired by a coming of age article in Mothering Magazine, Betsy found herself reflecting and dreaming. “That article got me thinking about how my own coming of age had not been celebrated, and what that meant to me as a woman. Now that I am raising my own daughters, I am inspired to make menarche a beautiful transition for them, and for other girls.” She honors and gives life to this transition with her Emerging Girl Celebration Kits and even hosts Emerging Girl Parties for girls (and their families and friends) who have reached their first menstruation, also known as menarche.
Ah, is this not a practice at the heart of Mary Oliver’s invitation to find one’s place in the family of things? “Come into the circle, young maiden! Come stand in the place that’s been announced for you! We welcome you into your budding womanhood, and receive your wise gifts.” How would your life have been different if this had been true for you?
Are you inspired?! Me, too.
So inspired, in fact, that I wrote this month’s Metta Chanting Circle
This song lends itself to your story just as it does for a girl emerging into womanhood; just as it does for a woman birthing her own business. What is it that’s unfolding in your life? Where it is you wish to come out of hiding? What new venture/risk/expedition of soul are you ready to embark on?
Whether you’re taking your first or your thousandth glimpse at your inner-beauty, I hope you’ll push open the confines of your coccoon when the time is right. And I offer you this month’s song as a companion in your emergence. Come out, come out wherever you are!
Here’s to you, Woman of Wonder!
Trish
oh please oh please do not leave blog land. stumbed on you today and would love to hear more.
Posted by: Swandive | August 31, 2006 at 12:11 PM
thanks for sharing the poem Wild Geese by Mary Oliver. She is indeed, very talented! I am interested in participating in the distance circle that you are starting in 2007. Could you give me more information about it? Thanks, and I enjoyed your website!
Posted by: Kate I | August 06, 2006 at 11:25 PM