(Swipe left!) I wrote this in response to @glennondoyle's EMERGENCY FLASH MOB FOR THE CHILDREN (along with @together.rising ) and their efforts to reunite sixty children - aged 12 months to 10 years - with their parents.
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The children are currently sitting in an Arizona immigration detention center, separated from their parents who are also being detained. Glennon's team will be working with the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project to "provide and fund two lawyers and two advocates whose responsibilities will be to represent every child in that center and every one of their parents. Their first priority will be to establish and maintain contact between child and parent. Their ultimate goal will be reunification and safety and rehabilitation for each child."
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If you swipe left, you'll read that if attorneys cannot represent these children they "will stand in front of a judge and represent [themselves], since there is now public defender system in immigration court, even for children." Uhhh, what!?!?!? -
So I wrote a poem. And I donated. It's all I can do in the moment. Because sometimes hope comes in whispers, especially the whispers that come when we walk down the halls of our warm, safe homes to hold our 3-year-old children securely in our arms and whisper into their hair through unbidden tears, "What would I do? What would I do if you were taken from me? What would I do?"
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Thank you @glennondoyle and @together.rising for all you do. ššš½šÆ
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In my early twenties I was asked in front of class of a dozen students: āWhat is one of your greatest goals in life?ā My answer ā āTo have a child who can talk to me when sheās 16.ā This was strange because, at the time, I was leaning towards never having kids, but I see now it was a Freudian slip, a quick peek into my subconscious.
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Since then I have transformed into a woman I would be proud to call Mother. It has been a spiritual journey as much as one of personal growth, and it has anchored me in the roots of the Filipina mothers who came before me as well as the roots of Mama Gaia, our Great Mother, the Divine Creatrix. But, of courseā¦
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When coworkers discovered I was co-sleeping, they were quick to lament the rod I was creating for my own back.
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When other parents watched us babywear using a traditional woven wrap (similar to the Mexican rebozo) instead of the popular Ergo Baby 360 carrier (which we used when she got older), they were awed by our choice to use something so HARD when the Ergo Baby was so convenient.
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When some women learn Iām still breastfeeding a toddler, theyāre shocked by my utter stupidity at continuing something so difficult and wildly inconvenient. -
No, not all parents respond in this way and I donāt expect us all to agree on how to care for our children. Iām simply using these examples to illustrate that some people see me constantly, stupidly, choosing the āharderā paths of mothering while I see my choices as expressions of my soul.
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They are results of commitments I made to myself as a mother, to my inner Divine spark, and to my child, spirit-to-spirit, soul-to-soul, when she was still in my womb.
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So, to the singular version of feminism that asks why I donāt want āmoreā for my life than motherhood, I say, āThere is little else for me than this.ā My mothering is my spiritual path, and my spiritual path is more important to me than my career or corporate/financial success will ever be in this life.
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I share not as recommendation or judgment, not to shame or blame, but to finally center my own story in my own life and own the powerful song in this motherās heart. Thank you for witnessing my story!
Let's talk about womanhood, shall we? Better yet, let's write about it. ā I recently started a new column at HerHeartPoetry.com called The Poetess' Heart (link in bio) as an exploration into the writings and topics of female poets.
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The first article is On Sovereignty and I share one of my favorite poems by @bjanepr - "To Be Walang Hiya" (which, in Filipino, loosely translates to "To Be Shameless").
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It led me to think about sovereignty. To be a sovereign nation is to self-govern. To be a sovereign ruler is to have complete and total control over that which is ruled. So, what does it mean to be a sovereign woman?
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I invite you to join me in exploring this question by writing a poem using the prompt Sovereign Woman. Please use tags #sovereignwoman and #thepoetessheart so I can find it, and perhaps read it on a future live show. š I'll be sharing my own later this week. .
#herheartpoetry #writingchallenge #poetrychallenge #poemoftheday #womenwhowrite #womenwriters #womenpoets
