For the past few months there have been signs all around us that point to the power of female leadership and connection. There is a shift happening and it can’t be ignored. For example, the changes in our Congress after the mid-term elections, my work in the yoga community has drawn me towards Off the Mat Leadership Training, hosting Suzanne Sterling for Voice of Change, inviting Melody Moore to teach Embody Love in the Fall and my recent journey to India. By “coincidence”, this trip was attended by a group of 12 women during a Festival of Shakti which is the energy of the Divine Feminine in India. We were there for 10 days and that is exactly how long the Festival lasted. We saw ceremonies for young girls inviting them to embrace the beauty and the gift of being female, we celebrated the Goddesses and opened our conversations to how we can lift each other up and support one another. Little signs happened for me like a series of random visits from Ladybugs over a period of days in a variety of different locations, we were embraced by the majesty of Mother Earth in every direction and spoke of her strength and grace and the environment. While we were there one of the women received a message from her niece and she shared it with me. I was amazed to read these insights from such a young lady. I asked their permission to share it with you. I am so happy to give some volume to her already strong voice… I hope you feel as inspired about the future as I do after you read it.

Cracked Porcelain by: Ava Krantz

My father always wanted a boy. he wanted someone to carry on the family name, to raise in his image, to extend the great legacy of construction and unfulfilled talent.

But he had daughters first, four girls he could never love. To him, they were vessels, they already belonged to future families, future husbands and children and lives.

So it was my mother’s job to raise us into the right kind of women. The kind men would want to marry, the kind that would give unconditionally who never learned to say no.

She taught us the importance of silence – there’s nothing men dislike more than a woman who talks. Every word that comes out of her mouth is poison to her image.

She taught us the necessity of an image – a woman’s hair is her crown, her body is her dowry. All she is and all she can give comes from Adam’s rib.

I was seven when I saw my mother crying alone. She didn’t know I was there, so, for a brief window of time, she was honest with me.

She told the truth about how tired she was, how worried and lonely and hurt and for the first time, I saw her as she was, I saw her porcelain mask crack.

My mother taught me the dangers of being passive in a world that hunts for weakness, that feeds off tired women who have forgotten how to stop giving.

By the time I was twelve, I had lived with many women, some tired, some angry, some young, some old. There is no right kind of woman. I learned this from them.

We are no less if we are loud, if we demand what we deserve. If we climb from the noose meant for our necks, and fight with the shackles bound to our wrists. we are no less if we know who we are.

I am seventeen now and I am just relearning how to live as myself, I am relearning what food I like, what clothes I want. How to be selfish and how to be loud, How to be everything I shouldn’t be.

Do You Believe in Divine Messages?