For the Love of Women

"For as long as I can remember I have had a love affair with Holy Women."

This, friends, is the opening line in my book, Your Truest Self. 

It's the opening line because it may be the most important thought in the book. It affirms the deep, deep longing I had to live a sacred life—to be and feel "holy"—which I learned upon doing my research meant nothing more than being "whole."

In the words of Abraham Joshua Heschel, "Just to be is a blessing, Just to live is holy." Since my search for holiness began, I have learned something very important: That it is in our living and being that holiness arrives, not upon the wings of a great wind, but within the gentle breath of life that moves through us. We need do nothing special to call ourselves holy women, only take a first step, no matter whether sturdy or faltering, toward our truest selves.

It is our life's purpose to embrace the totality of who we are—wholeness—pure and simple. For "holiness" and "wholeness" come from the same root word, have the same origin, and to accept one is to gain the other.

When we acknowledge our sacred source, we will begin to recognize ourselves as the glorious women we are and embark on the ultimate journey toward feeling holy and whole once again.

This is the journey I have found myself on for the past 16 years. It has been a profound journey of "reclaiming myself as sacred," and learning to celebrate my feminine self. I give thanks for this journey and what I have learned about life, about myself, along the way.

I have had a wonderful time this past month gathering up the essays, poems, and artwork to create an entire "magazine" dedicated to this theme of "Celebrating the Feminine." It is now completed and you can find it here. (The March issue of Buddha Chick Life.)

In creating it, I was newly reminded of how deep the wounds can be within women—wounds that have been inflicted because their feminine self has been discounted or squelched. There is much healing yet to be done. I was reminded of how many women long for a uniquely feminine spirituality—and for the desire to live this openly, without apology or embarrassment. 

I was reminded all over again how much we need to celebrate ourselves as women.

So besides pulling together an entire Issue on how we can acknowledge and grow into our whole feminine selves (with the help of over a dozen fabulous writers), I contributed my own thoughts on this...

In my Editorial: "A Feminine Feast"

And in an article:  "Every Woman Needs Room and Space to Grow"

I hope you will enjoy them—and the entire theme, "Celebrating the Feminine."

May you never forget that healing and wholeness is your birthright, as well as your destiny.

In summary, the words of Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD:

"Untappped source of peace,
The only real hope
Is to draw upon the collective wisdom of women."

(from her poem, "Untapped Source of Peace," which can be found here.) 

I believe it is time for us to remember our divine origin and potential, to to live from our fullness and fill the world with the light from our radiance. May we join hands and hearts and live as our truest selves. For when we do, the world will never be the same.  

Blessings, 

Jan

 

(Image "Flying into Spring" courtesy of artist Mara Friedman, NewMoonVisions.com 

Photo image freedigitalphotos.net)

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I'm counting down to the start of my next 12-month Sacred Journey course: Embodying Your Truest Self. It starts Monday, March 5, so I thought the subject was fitting. There's a few more days to sign-up.

This is the ONLY Sacred Journey course I will be offering this year, so if you're on the fence about joining in—Take the Leap and Fly—now!

Learn more here.