Message to a Young Warrior Woman

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I know the journey

you are making, 

my young friend,

for I, too, have walked

pain's pathway.

Know this: the route

will make you strong.

As you grow, 

your warrior woman

will arise.

(She is waking now.)

Your inner fire 

has been dampened,

but not extinguished,

by those unable to see

who you are.

One day, little bird,

you will fly.

Right now you are at 

the end of the branch,

contemplating the sky,

wondering what soaring 

might feel like.

Gather the air 

under your wings, 

little bird,

and, when you feel ready, 

lift off,

trusting the sky

to carry you.

But always remember:

the longest journey that

we ever make

is the one between

our heads

and our hearts.


***   ***   ***

"Me, too," I wrote on facebook,
recalling a cold and painful past.
"Me, too," wrote both my daughters,
able to speak of it at last.
"Me, too,"  added my granddaughter,
girl of fire and storm.
"Me, too," is now a sisterhood,
a planet to transform.


***   ***   ***

A wise medicine man once said to me: "Your greatest pain is your strongest medicine". And he was right. For my prompt at Real Toads: to write about women, in response to the "Me, too" movement.