Time Together As Women

A few weeks ago, more than 4,000 women gathered to camp together in the woods. We were on a big piece of wild land, where deep inside, a village of women is created each summer, as the Michigan Women's Music Festival. This was the thirty ninth year. This gathering undergoes constant pressure to stop meeting, with the argument that it is wrong for women to meet as women, but we persist. We need this. Since its beginning, between 3,000 and 10,000 women have met in these same woods to be with each other, to make music together, to share our crafts, attend workshops, and experience the best of what we can do within this loving and safe environment. Women arrive, mostly from the USA, but also from Canada and many other parts of the world.

I had not been able to attend for the past twenty two years, and returning, discovered a gathering that has deepened and matured beyond my imagination, despite my vivid memory of the powerful experiences I had had attending in the 1980's into the early 1990's. The experience of the village this year parallels for me, my experience of the hopefulness of interactions and messages to and from each other that I find with all of you, dear World Pulse Sisters.

The messages from behind every microphone first honoured the earth, and then each other. The intention was, always, global. Our experience of freedom of speech, and of sparking inspiration with each other is based on the relief and freedom that we feel in this environment of women. We are reminded that a community of love and respect is possible. This meeting of women together, whether it is in this deeply matured and longstanding gathering, or whether in the first precious hours we have to meet as World Pulse Sisters on line, or, as is beginning to happen, to witness World Pulse Sisters meeting in person at conferences and gatherings, in community centres and libraries, each meeting, for a moment, an hour, or for days, this is what frees our spirits to truly believe that in this act and by these discussions, we are here to bring peace to the world.

As I relaxed into the safety of this annual village, I was reminded once again of the safety I feel and of the joy I experience in seeing all around me, other women feeling safe, and other women doing everything, driving the busses and tractor trailers that transport campers and materials, building the stages, setting up sound systems, cooking for thousands, tending to medical problems, and talking, singing, dancing, drumming, reading speeches and poems, all with the message that it is time for every woman to be free.

My joy in being able to return "home" to this after so many years away, was matched only by my pain, that every woman does not yet have this, even for one week, one day, one hour - to strengthen ourselves, and each other, and to experience what is possible.

And so, I wrote this for you, dear sisters, with a pain that brings me to my knees holding onto the Earth for strength, that we can not yet all experience this freedom, so many not even yet for a moment. But I now write also with tears of joy that we are creating in places everywhere this same, safe, brilliant network, finally, and globally. Each moment that we meet, each story that we share is a step toward freedom. We are not finished until every woman is free. When my belief is shaken that we can make this happen, I now can read and reread all that you dear sisters are doing. We are each so strong. We have become so strong together. We are here to do this.

A Love Poem To You

Sisters

Far away, deep in my heart
I call out your names in joy
I carry your stories and how we have met
This is a new ecstasy.
Now that this ancient dream is coming true
This dream that we carried
Before we were born -
We are finally,
Finally meeting each other
In this lifetime.
Now I have met you
Where you are
Who you are
I have read what you have to say
I have read from you what we can do
Across barriers of time and distance
In which we have always known
That each other was there
And now stories and photos
Of your beautiful faces
And the faces of all those girls and women
That you are gathering in your loving arms
Your voices carry across the oceans
I call out your names
I hear you singing and dancing together
"Until every woman is heard, Until every woman is heard"*
And we sing back and drum and dance from here
The same ancient dance
We are here to do this
And in this life time
We are finally,
Finally
Meeting each other.

With Love in Sisterhood,

Tamarack

*sung by the Power Women Group, Kenya